<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>The Sixth Sense by littlebeagle</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26509957">The Sixth Sense</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlebeagle/pseuds/littlebeagle'>littlebeagle</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>6th sense, Ben is manipulative, Blood and Injury, Boss/Employee Relationship, Character Death, Cursed objects, F/M, Ghosts, HEA, Norse mythology weaponry, Slow Burn, a dash of politic, a dash of spionage, norse mythology: disir, rey can see and talk to ghost, rey is innocent, there will be a lot of ghosts, this is a scary fic ok</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 02:55:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>52,402</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26509957</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlebeagle/pseuds/littlebeagle</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey Johnson's parents died when she was 5 years old. Ever since then, her whole world changed in a way she never expect to happen to her. She lost both of her parents and gained an ability to see and talk to the dead. Now a young woman of 22, Rey has slowly learn to use her ability to help people who comes to her asking for her help. Mostly the dead. One fateful day, a ghost named Han Solo came asking for her help. Rey thought that Han Solo's case is just another simple ghost case that she can handle easily, turns out it is not. Han Solo's son, Ben Solo has set on helping her out. Unbeknown to the duo while trying to solve the mistery of Han Solo's death, they're walking closer and closer to Coruscant's most powerful &amp; dangerous man, Alexander Snoke, and he will do whatever it takes to get rid of Rey and Ben to keep his secrets shut tight..</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Armitage Hux/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>47</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The Day Rey Meet His Ghost</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It is raining hard on a Tuesday evening in Coruscant. Rey absolutely hates it when it rains this hard in the city. It’s not 10pm yet and on a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday she has night shift at the Anavrin, the supermarket she currently works at. The supermarket closes for costumers at 10pm then she has to do a little cleaning which makes her finish around 10.30pm, only then she can cycle home with her bicycle. Rey rides a bicycle from her very modest (or poor) apartment to the supermarket every day. It takes roughly 20 minutes for her to reach her apartment from the supermarket, so that makes around 11pm, an hour and a few minutes more until she can hide under her blanket in her bedroom.</p><p>Her old wrist watch which was given to her from her now-dead-uncle, Ewan, on her 16th birthday, showed her that it was 9.35pm. Now she’s currently standing in the cereal and biscuits isle, has been standing there for 5 minutes actually, not daring to move a muscle. 10 feet away from her and a broom she’s holding, stood a little boy around 8 or 9 years old with pale, grey-ish skin and a tattered clothing. Rey can see the grizzly dried blood on his forehead. The boy stood in front of a hazelnut and chocolate biscuit, looking longingly at it. A ghost. That’s what he is. She want to pretend that she can’t see him, but she can’t. Her eyes glued to the boy in front of her.</p><p>By the age of 12 Rey can finally see the difference between a real person and a ghost. Before Rey is 12, Rey mistook ghosts as real person a lot of time, and it caused her problems. A ghost she accidentally bumped to, she’d apologized, but then because the ghost knows that she can see and talk to them, they’d follow her around everywhere she go.

They think Rey would at least help them with their unfinished business, help them go to rest peacefully. Sometimes she’d help, but really, not all ghosts are kind. Sometimes there are vengeful ghosts that likes to haunt her everywhere, spooked her to death, Rey actually thought she’d die of a heart attack and finally go to meet her family in the beyond. But no, she’s still alive.</p><p>She really want to just be gone so she can finally go to the beyond. This ability to see ghosts since she’s 5 is really troubling her. She’d talked to pale faced people on her way to elementary school, then her classmates who saw her on the street made fun of her being crazy because she’s talking to thin air.

Rey has earned the ability to see and talk with ghosts since her parents died in a car crash when she was 5. But because her parents are kind people, they Immediately went to the beyond. The only time Rey can see them is when Rey visit their cemetery. That’s why after her parents died, she spent a lot of her free time at the cemetery just so she can see and talk to them. Sometimes she’d meet her neighbor or friends there. Again, her neighbor and friends gave her dirty look for talking to thin air. A 6 years old girl just sitting there by herself in a cemetery talking, laughing and crying into thin air. Must be a sight, she realized that now. She understand why people call her “crazy bitch”. She thinks so too because of her good-for-nothing ability.</p><p>Because of her ability, she doesn’t have many friends. The only friend that she has is Rose Tico, a friend since her elementary school. Rose knows that Rey can see ghosts. She only believed Rey when Rey told her a secret that only Rose’s dead sister, Paige, knows. Even in high school, Rey only friend is Rose.</p><p>Now 22, Rey is a lot more experienced in handling ghosts. Or not..<br/>
A really old and wrinkled woman wearing a white night gown suddenly walk through the shelves not 3 feet away from Rey, causing her to jump back in alarm, holding her broom tightly, as if it’ll defend her in front of a ghost. The woman stopped flying, and turns to look at her, “it’s just me girl. Stop being so jumpy.” The old woman said, rolling her grey lifeless eyes. Then she continued flying through the cereal shelf.</p><p>Rey put her palm on her chest. That was Leslie. Leslie didn’t give Rey her last name. Most ghosts won’t even give you their first name. Leslie is an old ghost that’s been haunting the supermarket for years apparently. And Rey only have been working at the supermarket for a year. But of course not 24 hours of working here yet, she was already introduced to many ghosts haunting the supermarket, that’s including Leslie. There are others such as Gerry, a 40 something years old guy that died because of asthma, Jane, a 26 years old girl who died quite recently because she accidentally ate a biscuit with peanut in it and she’s allergic to peanut, Victoria, Samuel, etc.</p><p>There are around 20 ghosts in the supermarket. Most of them are kind to Rey. They found it fascinating that a living person can see and talk to the dead as if they’re still alive. During the first weeks of her working here, they wouldn’t leave her alone, they kept bothering her with questions;<em> Who’s your father? Who’s your mother? Can they see us too? Are all your family have the ability to see and hear us? </em> And it went on and on. At least now they can keep their distance from her so she could focus on her work as the cleaning girl.</p><p>The boy that stood in front of the biscuit shelf now gone. Rey released her breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding. Rey didn’t know who the boy was. Usually when it rain hard, ghosts from outside the supermarket would come inside and wait until it stop raining outside. This is why she hates it when it’s rains hard in the city. The so empty supermarket for normal eyes, is actually very lively for Rey’s eyes, and it’s hard to keep focus on cleaning the floor when you keep seeing bodies flying here and there in front of your eyes. Another reason why it’s hard for her to get a job.

This is the longest job Rey ever had since she turns 17. Rey had worked as a waitress, didn’t even last 3 months because a ghost keeps showing up in her face, teasing her, causing her to jump and ruined the food she was bringing on her tray, and then Rey worked as a cashier girl in a 24-hour mini market at a gas station, it only lasted for 2 months. The ghosts at gas station is very, very scary and Rey had loads of night shifts, having to stay until late hours and early morning. The job wasn’t very healthy for her heart, so she quit it.</p><p>Rey keep imagining the warmth and the safety of her blanket in her bedroom now. She really want to go home, but of course she couldn’t, she has to finish her shift first. She really don’t want to ruin her job this time. She likes the place, mainly because it’s not too far from her apartment and the ghosts are mostly kind to her.

She doesn’t give a damn to the actual people who works here, she didn’t talk to many of them anyway. She only talks to her manager, Poe, a kind man in his mid-30s, Rose, Jessika, and Annie, the cashier girls and Snap, the butcher. The rest? she forgets their name. it’s not like it’s important. They don’t talk to Rey too, so she keeps her distance.</p><p>“Rey!” someone called her from behind. Rey turns around, finding Rose walking towards her briskly. Rey is cleaning the floor in the fruits isle now. “hey Rose”, Rey called back.<br/>
“we’re closing in now, can you please lock up the liquor cabinets? I’m covering Jessika’s, she has to go home early because her son is sick and now I have to lock up the medicine cabinets.” Rey take a look at her wrist watch, 9.55pm. <em> Thank you god </em>.<br/>
“okay, let me get the keys in the-“<br/>
Rose shoved a bunch of keys tied together with a ribbon. There’s a tag with Liquor Cabinets written on it.<br/>
“I already took them. Can you put them back in Poe’s room later?”<br/>
“Of course,” Rey took the keys from Rose’s hand.<br/>
“Thanks babe, love you!” with that Rose walk away heading to the medicine cabinets at the front of the supermarket.</p><p>Rey pocketed the keys and finished cleaning up the floor in the fruit isle. She put her broom and rags at the cleaning rack, then start walking towards the liquor cabinets. While walking she entertained herself with the idea that the streets that’s usually empty of ghosts after or while it’s still raining. She doesn’t mind getting wet as long as the street is clean of ghosts.</p><p>Rey’s fingers plays with the keys in her hand while walking to the liquor cabinets. When she’s near the liquor cabinets, she can see there’s a tall guy standing in front of it. Rey immediately stop walking and hold her breath. Her whole body froze. His back is to her now, she cannot see if it’s a ghost or not. He has a mop of black hair, shoulder length, and he’s wearing a wrinkled white shirt and a black pants. <em>The store is closing up.. he’s a ghost. He must be. </em> Rey thinks.</p><p>
  <em>Please don’t turn around and see me.</em><br/>
<em>Please don’t turn around and see me.</em><br/>
<em>I just want to go home in peace.</em>
</p><p>But then a ringtone rang in the air. The guy in front of her reaching for his front pocket, pulling out a sleek black iPhone. He looked at the caller id before he’s sliding his thumb to the right on the screen and put the phone to his ear.</p><p>“What? Yeah. I’m picking up the goods now. What do you want?..”</p><p>
  <em>Oh. He’s a real people. Thank you god.</em>
</p><p> “Anavrin. Hey now, give me a break, it’s the closest to your damn apartment. Maybe if you didn’t ruin your date you wouldn’t have me picking up alcohol at 10 in the evening Hux.”<br/>
Rey couldn’t hear what the other person is saying on the other line but the voice of the mysterious guy in front of her. Then Rey noticed an older guy with grey hair walk up to the guy on the phone and stood next to him. Rey can’t see the full face of the older guy, only his side profile. Then he’s folding his arms on his chest.</p><p>“What are you up to now?” said the older guy, shaking his head. The guy that’s on the phone ignored the question keep listening to the phone that’s pressed to his ear. His other hand running through bottles of wine and beer.<br/>
“They don’t have much. It’s not a liquor store. They have Corellian whites and reds though.. No? Oh, here it is, they have the whiskey. Yeah, alright. Warm the damn steak for me.” With that the guy put back his phone to his pants’ front pocket.<br/>
“Smart choice. My favorite.” The older guy chuckled.<br/>
“Fucking Hux.” The guy murmured quietly, picking up Corellian whiskey from the bottom of the cabinet, still ignoring the older guy.</p><p>He noticed he was being watched, the older guy with grey hair turns his head and look at Rey dead in her eyes. Only then she can see the older guy’s whole face. Rey understands why he was ignored by the man with Corellian whiskey in his hand now. The older guy has half of his face covered with blood. Some of the blood even drips down to his chin, and to his white shirt. The front collar is wet and darkened with blood. Rey gasped loud and drop her the liquor cabinets keys to the floor. Her action caused the man with Corellian whiskey to stop short in his track and turns to look at her. But Rey couldn’t see the man’s face, as her focus is only on the new ghost in front of her.</p><p>“What the?” the ghost looks at her confused. Then he took two steps closer to Rey. Rey hold out her hand.<br/>
“P-please don’t come closer!” her voice high pitched and trembles just like her hands that she holds out hoping the ghost would just walk away.<br/>
“I’m not robbing this, I’ll pay at the cashier.” Said the man with Corellian whiskey, gesturing to the whiskey in his hand. Rey can’t look away from the new ghost that’s a few feet away from her.</p><p>“You can see me?!” the ghost quirk an eyebrow at her. Rey can feel her blood drained from her face. “Yes.. Yes you can, can’t you?” said the ghost again. The ghost now smiles at Rey.<br/>
“P-please.. don’t hurt me”<br/>
“What? I’m not gonna hurt you. Look, sorry for coming in last minute of your closing hour, but this is an emergency. I don’t want to waste your time, I know you want to end your shift quickly, I’m not a robber so I should run to the cashier now.” said the man. Now he’s walking away from Rey leaving her with the new ghost. Rey want to yell at the man with the Corellian whiskey to come back and bring this ghost back with him.</p><p>“Hey.. I-I’m not gonna hurt you, okay? But, you can see me right?” the ghost slowly walking closer to her, holding out his palms to the air.<br/>
Rey nods. The ghost then laughing loudly.<br/>
“Dear god! This is it! Thank you!” he said to thin air.<br/>
“What?” Rey whispers. The ghost then look at her dead in the eye, “I need your help, and you’re gonna help me kid.”</p><p>…</p><p> </p><p>Rey is pedaling her bicycle quickly, ignoring the ghost of an old man flying in the air to her right. By now, she knows that his name is Han Solo, he apparently died a few years ago in a car crash. He wants Rey to help him with his unfinished business. Rey used to help ghosts like him, but when Rey asked him what kind of unfinished business that he has, Han won’t answer her. This makes Han a ghost that she can’t trust. What if he’s just toying with her? He’s just bored and looking for a stupid human to fool around with.</p><p>“Please kid?.. come on, help me out.” He begged. The rain has slowed down to a light shower. Rey doesn’t mind. She wants to go home and cuddle her cat, Baby. Baby is an overweight tabby cat that Rey found in the sidewalk a few blocks from her apartment 2 years ago. She named him Baby because to be fair, it was still a baby when she found him and now that name kinda stuck with her.<br/>
“I said I will help, if you tell me what kind of unfinished business that you have.” Said Rey. She can see her modest apartment coming up in the horizon now. The evening air blew on her thin and frail body. Her tattered jacket, used to warm her, now it’s thin and doing a poor job of warming her. She knows she needs to buy a new jacket to save herself from the harsh winter in Coruscant. Soon she hopes.</p><p>Her roommate, Gwen, is probably already home. She best be finishing this deal with the ghost outside her apartment. <br/>
“I’ll tell you if you agreed to help me!”<br/>
“Sounds like it’s too dangerous for me Mr. Ghost. What if you owed, I don’t know, a liver maybe? I can’t help you with that.”</p><p>“Solo. My name is Han Solo. And no, I don’t owe anyone a liver, or an eye, or a finger.” The ghost, Han Solo, sighed in defeat but he’s still flying next to Rey.<br/>
“Do you ever wonder why you can see and talk to the dead?”<br/>
“I think about it all the time, ever since I’m 6.”<br/>
“Then maybe this thought came to you; you can see and heard the dead to help us, as a.. an agent from god! To help the poor lost souls!” Said Han Solo.<br/>
“Like you?” Rey give him a side glance from her bicycle seat. He nods furiously.<br/>
“Yeah, absolutely like me! Imagine if you’re in my place. You’d be doing what I’m doing to you!”</p><p>Rey slowed down her bicycle as she nears her apartment building. She hopped down to the sidewalk and tied and locked her bicycle to the bicycle park near the building. The ghost, Han Solo, still tailing her. Rey stopped walking and turns to face the ghost. After she spent a few minutes talking to the ghost, <em>he’s not so scary. </em> Rey thinks. She dare say that the ghost is kind of friendly.<br/>
“You’re the only person that’s able to see me in my 17 years of being a ghost. I’m not gonna let you go so easily. So, if you want to get rid of this old ghost, you gotta help me out. I promise you, this won’t cause you any harm..” Rey look into his grey eyes. All ghosts has grey eyes.</p><p>“If I said I’ll think about it, will you leave me alone tonight?”<br/>
“How long do you need to think about it?” The ghost asks Rey back, looking at her skeptically, Rey look into the black evening sky behind the ghost. She wants to end this fast. Then look back to the ghost again.<br/>
“Tomorrow?”<br/>
The ghost’s grumpy face changed to a happy grin, “alright kid, see you tomorrow. I’ll come back here.”</p><p>The ghost started to fly away until Rey call him back, “wait!! Please don’t jump and scare me tomorrow?.. I- I have a roommate..” most ghosts would always jump and scare her because they said that it’s fun. Being a ghost is so boring that they need something fun to entertain them; like scaring the shit out of Rey. Hearing what Rey just said, the ghost shrug.<br/>
“Alright.” And then with that, he fades into thin air.</p><p>Rey walk up the stairs to her apartment No. 3B on the third floor. She’s hoping that Gwen is already asleep so that she won’t have to start a conversation just to be polite with her. She just don’t know what to talk about.</p><p>
  <em>The weather? How’s your job today? How come a nice lady like you want to be roommate with a freak like me?</em>
</p><p>Still thinking about what she’s gonna have to say if she meet Gwen in the living room, when Rey is passing the hall on the second floor, she stopped dead in her track. From the corner of her right eye, she can see a black shadow, floating in the air. Rey can feel the air around her dropping several degrees. It’s not winter yet. The air in the apartment is cold because of the broken heater in the apartment hall that the landlord, Unkar Plutt, won’t fix. He said he’ll fix it by the end of the month, and he said that about 8 months ago. The heater in the hall is still not fixed yet. The residents doesn’t really complain of course, because of the cheap rent. But this is not it. The cold air is not because of the broken heater. It’s because the black apparition to her right.</p><p>Rey can see white smokes in her breath and she can feel the tip of her nose freeze. The little hairs on her back stood, goosebumps hitting Rey like a tidal wave. All the lamps in the hall of the second floor are dimming, as if they are all greeting the black apparition. Steeling her weak and scared heart, Rey look to her right very slowly, finally catching the figure of the black apparition. It’s like a big ball of black smoke, just floating. But then she see smoke separating itself from a ball of black smoke and then it forms into a hand, it looks like a very thin hand with long sharp nails. Then it points at Rey. Using all of her strength left of the day, she runs to the floor heading to the third floor where her apartment 3B is located. She takes two stairs at the time, running as if her life depends on it.</p><p>…</p><p>Gwen Christie a woman with a sharp and witty mind is a force to be reckoned with. Standing tall at 6 feet 3, cold and icy blue eyes with platinum hair, she will always stand out in public. No matter what clothing she disguised herself with. Today, after taking extra hours working at First Order Ltd., because of her boss’ order, she finally arrived home at 10.40pm. She took off the black flats she always wear to work and throws her blazer to the tanned sofa in the living room of her shared apartment.</p><p>Gwen has a roommate that she thinks quite.. off. Her name is Rey Johnson. She’s not home yet. Gwen knows she has night shift at the supermarket she works at on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Other than where she works and her night shift schedule, Gwen doesn’t know anything more about her roommate. The girl is a mysterious one. Rey have been Gwen’s roommate for the past 6 months. And in that time, what Gwen can tell is that there is just something about her mysterious, shy and timid roommate. She can’t put her finger in it though. She’s not quite sure what makes her.. off. Her roommate could be just a true introvert. A shy and timid girl. But she’s a nice girl. And that’s what matters to Gwen.</p><p>Gwen opened the refrigerator in the kitchen. Greeted with a cold Chinese takeout, a jar of pickles, a milk carton and a bottle half filled with orange juice. Lazily, she took the Chinese takeout and heat them up in a microwave. Her boss, the CEO at First Order Ltd., Benjamin Solo, had ordered her to take extra hours at the office because he has ‘other business’ to deal with. Lying ass. She knows he just wants to hang out with his friend, Armitage Hux, her supervisor. But Gwen respect her CEO very much. He’s a hard worker and very, very good at his job. She even dare say that he’s a charming guy at some times. If people just don’t test his patience, all is well.</p><p>After the food is heated, Gwen ate her yesterday Chinese takeout with the sound of gentle showers of rain hitting the street outside of the apartment. She checks her phone, showing the hour 10.50pm, a few emails from work, and a text massage from her mother, Julia, saying don’t forget to take her vitamins. Since Gwen’s father died almost a year ago, Gwen who live in a small city outside of Coruscant is made to work since she’s the only kid that her mother has and she is not at the age to work anymore, so Gwen has to do all the work now. She doesn’t mind though. She’s very lucky to get the job at First Order Ltd. a cereal company, hiring her as a junior accountant that pays her a good amount of salary monthly even though she is new. Well, they do work her to the bone, but it is all worth it. That’s what Gwen keeps telling herself.</p><p>The sound of the front door of the apartment being unlocked woke Gwen from her reverie. What comes next is the heaving breath of her roommate. She can hear her walking towards the small kitchen adjoined to the living room, separated with a small white wooden table where Gwen is sitting right now. Gwen then hear the footsteps stopped behind her a few feet away. Gwen turns, greeted with the sight of her roommate, Rey Johnson, soaked to the bone.<br/>
“Jesus.” She gaped at her brunette roommate.<br/>
“Why don’t you use a raincoat?”</p><p>The soaked girl shifted her feet, her lips quaking, her breath still heaving.<br/>
“I-I.. I forgot. Left it in my bedroom.”<br/>
Gwen stares at the girl, “well.. go on then, you’re creating a puddle in our living room.” Said Gwen, gesturing to the floor underneath Rey. Rey quickly nodded and walking briskly heading to the only bathroom in the apartment.<br/>
“I only just arrived a few minutes ago. I haven’t use the hot water, there should be plenty for you to warm up but leave some for me?” Gwen called out behind Rey.<br/>
“O-of course!” with that, Rey enters the bathroom and start peeling off her wet jacket, sweater, shirt, pants and underwear. After that Rey showers her body with hot water quickly and dried her wet body with her towel. Not bothering to warm up under the hot water. Gwen is nice enough, she’s probably tired and need the hot water more than she is. She can warm up under her blankets.</p><p>After she’s done she called out to Gwen from her bedroom door, “Gwen, I’m done, you can use the bathroom now..” Rey said timidly. Her voice soft as silk.<br/>
“Okay!” Gwen replied, still from her position in the kitchen.</p><p>Rey entered her bedroom. It is a hell of a fucking mess. It looks like a helicopter just came down on it. Her blankets are strewn everywhere, along with her shirts and pants. The curtain is always strewn closed. Ghosts would sometimes come up out of nowhere. Rey rarely open her curtain. Only on afternoon or when it’s nice and sunny outside. She quickly jumps under her blankets.</p><p>Closing her eyes, Rey starts her imagination, where she can live her life as a normal girl, with both of her parents still alive right back at home in Jakku where Rey wants them to be. What’s gonna happen if she’s normal and her parents still alive?

She could be living her live as a happy 22 years old woman.. partying, going out on a Saturday night with friends to a club, go to movie theatre with her boyfriend.

What would her high school live be like? Maybe she will go to a prom wearing a pretty dress with her date, go to a friend’s birthday party, traveling with her friends.. all that Rey can never have now. Her high school live is a living hell. All of her friends joked and talked shit about her. They said she’s insane, that she should be living in a psychiatric ward not living loosely all by herself.</p><p>When her parents died, Rey live with her father younger brother, her uncle, Ewan Johnson. But when she’s 16, Ewan died of a heart attack. Ewan was a really good uncle. He’s like a second father to Rey. Rey would sometimes visit her uncle’s grave, and only then she can see and talk to Ewan. As an only child, and her only family after her parents died, that is Ewan, left too, all Rey have is herself. Rey misses them a lot of the time. The only comforting thing about her ability is that she still can talk to her loved ones.</p><p>In her head, she is imagining her parents, and her uncle holding a birthday cake for her.</p><p>
  <em>I miss you guys..</em>
</p><p>The girl fell asleep, clutching her blankets tight in both of her hands.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>English is not my first language, I am very sorry with all the grammar errors! x</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The Day Rey Meet Her Sun</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>“Ben..” he stared at the girl in front of him. Her tears fall down her face like river. But Ben doesn't give a single fuck. His heart full with pain, anger and fury, he can’t think of anything else, can’t remember of all the happy times they spent together but her betrayal to him.<br/>
“I didn’t.. Please listen to me, I will tell you the truth.”<br/>
“when?” he snaps, “when I went into the fucking rabbit hole?!”<br/>
The girl stares at him sadly.<br/>
“you don’t trust me.”<br/>
“I did and I was fucking wrong! You betrayed me, I trusted you, I loved you.” At this point, Ben didn’t care anymore if he hurts her feelings. She snitched on him and his mother to Snoke. Ben walks out of the room, Kaydel tailing behind him, calling his name and pulling on his left arm, “PLEASE HEAR ME OUT!” </em>
</p><p>He woke up heaving and sweating really hard, the sweat dampens his bedsheets. Ben take a look at the clock on his nightstand, 5.30am. He lean back to his pillow, his right hand coming up to wipe the sweat on his forehead and neck.</p><p><em>Fuck me.</em> Ben thinks.</p><p>He hasn’t dreamt of Kaydel in a few years. He thought he forgot about it already. But apparently his unconsciousness proved him wrong.<br/>
“you are not your old mistakes..” Ben said into the thin air in his bedroom. Repeating it a few times like it’s a mantra to make him feel better. His heart still racing when he sat upright in his bed, he’s clutching his head in both of his hands. Steadying his breath, Ben quickly got up from his bed, readying himself for a run around the block of Coruscant Heights. He finds himself in need of fresh air to brighten his clouded mind at the time.</p><p>Benjamin Solo, the CEO of First Order Ltd., live in a penthouse on the 50th floor, the highest floor in Coruscant Heights. After he put on his running shoes, he pressed the button of his private elevator to reach the lobby. To reach his private elevator, he had to pass the giant living room that’s furnished glamorous and elegantly, with floor to ceiling window, overlooking the view of the lively city, Coruscant. He always loved the times when he’s alone in the penthouse (which is often) drinking wine or whiskey while looking down at the city. Sometimes he would think about his mother, Leia, whom he left in Alderaan when he’s 22. Sometimes he would think about his father, who died when he was 15, or sometimes he would think about Kaydel, his ex-girlfriend when he’s a naïve, young boy in his 17 years of age.</p><p>But that’s all in the past now. He keeps reminding himself that.<br/>
Your mistakes can’t shape you.</p><p>He is a successful CEO, his earning reaches 67 million dollars a year, he has everything that he needs right at the tip of his fingers. Every fucking thing that he needs. Why would he cow down and cry like a 10 years old boy now? let the past die.</p><p>“good morning Mr. Solo.” The security guard greeted Ben at the front door of the lobby.<br/>
Ben nods at the man, “morning James”. When he stepped out of the building he quickly went for a jog around the block with his earphone stuck to his ears, playing Kings of Leon, Use Somebody.</p><p>…</p><p>“what?” Ben looks up from his sandwich to his best friend Armitage Hux.<br/>
“yeah.. can I stay at your place tonight? My next door neighbour died of a stroke last night.” Armitage picks around his salad, looking at Ben glumly.</p><p>“so? What of it?”<br/>
“his spirit is still hanging around the apartment Ben.. That’s why. I can’t get a good 8 hours of sleep knowing his spirit could fly through my walls.”<br/>
Ben’s mouth agape with that, “wow. Your reasoning astounds me. Tell me why a person who believe in numbers and facts believe in ghosts and spirits?” Ben raised a lazy brow at Armitage.</p><p>The two guys are currently eating their lunch at a café near the First Order’s office. Armitage Hux is Ben’s best friend since high school. They went to the same high school and Armitage is actually the one who introduces Ben to Kaydel. Now, Armitage works as Finance Manager at the First Order Ltd.</p><p>“they’re real Ben. Ghosts and spirits. I just really don’t want to get tangled up with them, or cross with them.” Said Armitage, digging back to his salad. Ben rolled his eyes.<br/>
“can you see them?” Ben asks his best friend even though he already knows the answer to this. Armitage shakes his head.<br/>
“no. that’s right. So why all this.. talk about ghosts and zombies?”</p><p>“Zombies... spirits Solo, spirits. And just because you can’t see it, it doesn’t mean it’s not real. Take an example from air. It’s invisible but you definitely feel it around you.” Armitage gesturing wildly using his plastic fork.<br/>
“Can you feel spirits around you Armitage?” Ben lean unto the table. They are sitting outside the cafe, breathing in the polluted air of Coruscant city. There are cars and trucks on the busy street a few feet away from them. Drivers with no patience honking their car’s horn when the street light turns green.<br/>
“Sometimes..” at that Ben raised his eyebrows skeptically.</p><p>“You’re bullshitting me. This is new for you. Are you acting up again? Because of your failed date with Millie?” Ben leans back to the cafe’s chair shaking his head at his best friend’s silly behavior.<br/>
“don’t….” Armitage looks up from his salad, looking at Ben sternly with his pale blue eyes, “This is new because there hasn’t been anyone who died near me in all my years with you until now, apparently. Well.. at least not after Kay.” Armitage put down his fork and drink his lemonade that he ordered along with his salad from the café. This time, it is Ben’s turn to look at Armitage. Ben’s relaxed posture stiffen at the mention of her name. he feels like as if his blood is seeping out of him when Armitage mentioned her name. He dreamt of her this morning.</p><p>Why can’t he run just fast and far enough from her?</p><p>“I saw her again. In my dream.” Ben can sense the mood between them just turns sour. "haven't been for the past 2-3 years. this morning I saw her again."<br/>
Armitage shook his head at Ben, “dude, take my advice as your best pal, not me as finance manager, I think you need to talk to a doctor. Maybe there’s nothing wrong with you but you know how some people just need to let go by talking it out, and doctor is the best answer to that. They’re bound to secrecy.” Ben smirks at his friend.<br/>
“hear that? You just told me to see a doctor instead of a shaman or ghostbusters. Why all the talk of someone who died next door to you?” Armitage squints his eyes at Ben.</p><p>“Do you have a lady friend at your place?” Ask Armitage suddenly. Ben frowns, “what?”<br/>
“A lady friend that you want to keep as a secret from me. Is that why I can’t stay at your place tonight?” Now Ben is visibly rolling his eyes at Armitage.<br/>
“Are you fucking kidding me?”<br/>
“Then let me come to your goddamn place Solo.”<br/>
“I never said you can’t go, I just hate your reasoning. Fucking ghosts and spirits.”<br/>
“Alright. I told you the truth you hated it so here comes the lie; my heater broke, can I sleep at your place for the rest of this week?” Armitage sat upright and folded both of his arms on his chest, putting on his brightest smile to Ben.<br/>
“Just... come.”</p><p>The two men is walking back towards the First Order’s office now. As much as Ben is glad that Armitage cares about him, he doesn’t want to talk about Kay anymore. <em>What’s in the past is in the past. It should stay there.</em><br/>
“I might come in late though. I went home early yesterday and now I have to do the extra work. What was the password? Phantom Thread?” Armitage asks as they enter the grand lobby of the building. The Coruscant Heights is under a tight security. Guests or un-residents without password won’t be allowed to step into the lobby. Guests will be asked for a password in front of the lobby. If they know the password they can go inside the lobby and ride the elevator to reach the destined floor. In the Elevator, the guest must insert a unique passcode that’s different from one resident to the other resident.</p><p>“No that was last month. This month is Jungle Book. Do you remember my passcode?” They’re riding up in the elevator in the First Order’s building now. Heading to their respective office.<br/>
“717?”<br/>
“Yup.”</p><p>...</p><p>Ben picked up an apple from the fruit isle. Looking for the fresh ones that’s clean and has no bump or bruise on its skin. He already got 3 apples inside the clear plastic bag. It is 6.10pm and Ben is already out of the office thinking he’ll take it easy today, considering what he saw in his dreams earlier this morning. It still makes his skin crawl and his stomach lurch thinking about it. Now he’s stopping at a supermarket, Anavrin, on his way home to buy some fruits and wine for his liquor cabinet at home.</p><p>Ben is currently in the pasta aisle now. Choosing to buy either fettuccine or spaghetti. Will he even have the time to cook this weekend? He likes to cook for himself sometimes, but does he have the time this week? Ben who stood peacefully in front of the pasta shelf, suddenly being bumped to by a person. Ben, on instinct, grab the person’s waist and hand to steady them.</p><p>When Ben take a look at the person that bumped into him, he can see that it’s a girl. A young girl, probably in her 20s, with long brunette hair. Her head came up to his shoulder. Her petite hands clutching the front of his t-shirt.</p><p>“Miss? Are you okay?”<br/>
After Ben helped steadying the girl, she looked up at him. The girl’s bright hazel eyes greeted him. Ben can see how frighten the girl is. Ben’s hands still at her waist and the other one holding her hands that’s clutching the front of his shirt. Ben can feel the poor girl is shaking to the bone.</p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>On Wednesday, Rey only has shift until 6pm. After changing her uniform to her casual clothing, Rey walk out of the staff’s locker &amp; changing room heading towards the exit on the back of the supermarket. While walking on the barren &amp; dimly lit corridor, the temperature of the room suddenly drops. Rey can see white smokes when she breathes.</p><p>
  <em>No no no.. please no. </em>
</p><p>Her skin crawls and feet frozen to the ground. Her body seems to always be the first to know what’s going on before her brain does. At the end of the corridor, where the exit door stood, Rey could’ve sworn it was empty, but now in front the door, stood a lady, wearing a tattered red cocktail dress. There are blood dripping from her dress.. there are gruesome scars scattered on her greyish pale skin and the ghost lady has blonde hair. her hair is sticking out of direction, defying gravity.</p><p>Rey wanted to scream, to speak, but she can’t. She’s glued to the ground. The ghost moves towards her with broken heels at her feet, approaching Rey slowly. Its neck that’s bend to the right, snaps. Now it’s bend to the left. Rey screams internally. Without further ado, Rey turns on her feet and run as fast as she can out of the corridor and the back room of the supermarket. She keeps running and running as if her life depends on it.</p><p>She ran through the inventory room, another hall, the staff’s kitchen, and finally the backdoor entrance of the supermarket. One foot in front of the other, she keeps running without even realizing it, she ends up running in between the supermarket’s aisles. The lady in red cocktail dress still running after her. The ghost is catching up to her now. When she turns her head to look back, she can see the ghost is holding out her hands, ready to grasp Rey with it.</p><p>Rey suddenly ran to a solid rock of a body. When she hit the person, it took her breath and balance away. The person immediately put their hand on her waist and Rey clutch the front of the their body to steady herself.<br/>
“Miss? Are you okay?”<br/>
At that, Rey look up to the person she bumped into. Rey is greeted with a pair of hazel eyes, just like hers, strong nose and jaw, and a mop of shoulder length black hair.</p><p>Warmth creeping into her body, leaving no traces of the cold and freezing feeling she always feels whenever a ghost is near. Now she feels like as if she’s embracing the sun, she feels as if she’s standing in the middle of the beach with the warmth of the sun shining down on her in the summer days.</p><p>Rey quickly went to her feet, releasing the poor man’s shirt from her grasp. She cleared her throat, “ss- s- sorry, I, I didn’t.. I didn’t mean t-to bump into y-you..” she said timidly.<br/>
“It’s okay, it’s no trouble.. are you okay? Do you have a low blood sugar perhaps?” The man asks Rey. Rey shook her head violently.<br/>
“N-no no! I uh, I just slipped..”<br/>
The man nodded at that, “oh alright, well then, you should be careful next time..” the man then walk away from Rey.</p><p>
  <em>No.. wait.. don’t walk away..</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Wait.. huh?</em>
</p><p>Rey turns back, seeing the ghost in the red cocktail dress is gone. </p><p>That’s weird.. the ghost is very close to capturing Rey. They won’t give up easily like that. When Rey turns her head back to look at the man that she bumped to, the ghost in the red dress suddenly showed her face out of the pasta shelf. Rey screamed and jerked back shocked, and shot out her hand to hold anything within reach. Her hand ends up grabbing the man’s right arm. The man stopped dead in his track, looking back at Rey. Now there is a really serious concern written on his face.<br/>
“Miss??”</p><p>Again, the red cocktail dress ghost is missing from her view. She dissolved into thin air like a smoke.</p><p>
  <em>What sorcery is this?</em>
</p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Rey watches as the man pay at the cashier. She can see him pulling out his wallet and give Rose some money to pay for his things. The second time that Rey grabbed the man, Rose showed up after hearing Rey screams from the next aisle. Rose had told the man that Rey is a friend of her and she’s very scared of cockroaches. The man bought it.</p><p>“That’s my son.” The old man ghost that she saw yesterday now standing beside her. Earlier today, Rey met with the old man ghost, Han Solo, near her apartment building. She has said yes to helping Han out. Now Rey is standing in the ketchup isle, hiding, hoping the man that she bumped to earlier won’t notice her spying on him. It’s.. weird. She feels so warm next to him. It’s like hugging the sun. Also the ghost in red cocktail dress dissolved into thin air like smoke when she touched the mysterious man. Why? This kind of thing never happen to her before.</p><p>“Your.. son?” Rey look at the ghost skeptically. He nods and grins.<br/>
“I have unfinished business with my family. And that’s include him. I was hoping you’d help me to talk to him.” Said Han Solo again. Rey put her sight back to the man on the cashier. Now finishing up, ready to go to wherever he’s heading next.</p><p>“Handsome ain’t he? Just like his father.” Han Solo said. Proudly puffing out his chest and slapping it with his hand.<br/>
“I.. I can’t just.. walk up to him and say that I can see you.” Said Rey timidly. The ghost, Han Solo, look at her glumly. Then he mumbles, “You’re right. He’d call you a coo-coo. So? What are we going to do? He’s heading back home now.”<br/>
“You can go and stick around him until I come up with a plan..”<br/>
The ghost look at Rey sadly.</p><p>"I- I can’t think with you beside me like this. I- I need to calm myself to be able to think, okay? Your.. blood dripping down your chin is really.. distracting.” Rey looks down on Han The Ghost’s chin where dark red blood drips down his chin to his shirt’s collar.</p><p>Han The Ghost straighten his back up. Then suddenly the blood is gone and now he looks.. clean. No blood on his forehead, no blood dripping down his collar.<br/>
“This is my nice ghost mode.” Said Han. Rey nodded thankfully, “thanks.. but still.. go to your son while I think of a plan.” she said, smiling shyly at Han.<br/>
The ghost rolls his eyes, “alright kiddo. You better come up to me next time with one hell of a plan.” With that Han Solo The Ghost dissolved into thin air.</p><p>…</p><p>Rey can’t think of anything.<br/>
It is Sunday, her day off, and she’s been lying around since she wakes up from her dreamless sleep. She can’t think of a plan to talk to Han Solo’s son. What is his name anyway? Han hasn’t told her his name yet. If she just walk up to him and say that she’s been talking to his dad’s ghost for a past few days, there’s a chance he’ll leave and never return to Anavrin again. There goes her chance in trying to help poor old Han Solo The Ghost. Because that’s what had happened to her before. She’d failed a few times in helping a ghost out. But now there is a stake. Rey really want to get to know the man, and find out why the ghost in the supermarket just disappear the moment she touched him. And why him? Rey really don’t want to fuck this chance up. She need to get to the guy. He just might be the key of her having a normal life. Rey heart shakes thinking about it. Normal life sounds like a dream to her.</p><p>It is around noon until Rey’s stomach finally grumbles. She got up from her bed and walk towards the kitchen. Gwen is already on the small table eating a cereal with her phone on her left hand.<br/>
“hey” Gwen greeted. “hey” Rey greets her roommate back. Rey opens the refrigerator and take out a bottle filled with orange juice. She pours herself a glass of it before sitting down, thinking what to have for lunch. It’s already 12pm. She sat in front of Gwen when Gwen clears her throat.<br/>
“so.. I was thinking.. we have to do something to the poor food that we have here,” said Gwen. Rey just nods and look at her, as she swallows her orange juice.<br/>
“maybe we can go for a grocery shopping together? It’s okay if you don’t want to go with me, I’ll pay for all the things with my money and then we can split the bill when I get home with the receipt.” She adds. By now, Gwen knows just how shy and timid Rey is. All of her time in 6 months of being her roommate so far, they only went out thrice together and Rey never speak much in all of the outings.</p><p>Gwen is preparing herself for an objection until Rey answered, “okay” with her little voice that sounds just like a small bird chirping outside. “I need to but a new jacket.. my old one is wearing thin.” Gwen glances up from her phone at Rey, and smiled, “alright. What time should we go?”<br/>
“I uh.. I need to shower first,”<br/>
“I already did.”<br/>
“oh.. o-okay, I’ll shower now then.” Rey quickly gulped down the remainder of her orange juice and then got up from her seat to put her glass down in the sink.<br/>
“great, we’ll leave when you’re ready.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. The Day Rey Enjoyed Her Strawberry Milkshake</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I decided to change Hux's position in First Order ltd because it will be important in the next chapters. So far I’ve wrote 6 chapters for this, &amp; I think it's crucial to change Hux's position. In Ch. 2 I introduced Hux as "senior accounting partner" but I've decided to change it to "Finance Manager".</p><p>I hope you enjoy Ch. 3, it's shorter than the previous ones but the next chapter will be longer xx</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rey and Gwen decided to go to a shopping district in Coruscant called District 9. In District 9 they can shop all the things they need be it clothes, food, shoes, living appliances and many more.  The girls decided to just buy some food for their apartment and a jacket that Rey need and Gwen wanted to see the new clothing line from her favorite boutique, Jean-Palaque’s. Baby the Cat hasn't come back to the apartment in three days. Rey best guess is that the cat found another cat to play around with. He'll come back home, Rey is sure of it.</p><p>Rey and Gwen went with public bus to go to District 9. The bus is crowded considering that today is Sunday. There are kids with toys, parents, couples.. kissing.. in the bus..</p><p><em> Huh.<br/>
It’s a public place for god’s sake.</em> Rey thinks as she glances away from the couple that sat right in front of her. A part of her feels stabbed. Rey have never kiss a boy in all of her 22 years of living. </p><p>
  <em>Who am I joking? I’m a freak. </em>
</p><p>There are a couple of ghost clinging to the passengers in the bus. Usually the clinging ghosts are loved ones; fathers or mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, even kids that went away sooner than their parents, fiancés, etc. When Rey passed an old guy in the bus, sitting and looking at the streets through the window next to him, there is a ghost of a woman clinging to him. She can hear the ghost talking; “this is why you can never save up your money! You love spending them every time you earned them! Save up for god’s sake Jonathan! You don’t have me anymore to watch you out!” Said the ghost. <em>Must be husband and wife.</em> Rey thinks.</p><p>The moment Rey and Gwen arrived at district 9, they are greeted with the sight of the colourful tents and stands in the shopping district. The chilly and sunny weather complements everything. Rey feels happy today somehow. The fresh smells of freshly oven baked breads and fresh flowers wafting in the air.<br/>
“Oh! Looks like the market is in full swing! Come on! We don’t want to miss out on anything!” Says Gwen cheerily as she put on her nude straw hat. Gwen is wearing a tan, wide legged pants, with long sleeved off-white blouse, tan shoulder bag, nude sandals, and a nude straw hat.</p><p>The woman always has good taste in fashion Rey must say. She must’ve look like a total eye-sore standing next to her gorgeous friend. Rey look down at her clothes; she’s wearing a grey jeans with a black sweater and a worn out black backpack. This time Rey wore her long brunette hair in a ponytail.</p><p><em>Why bother dressing up when your whole point is to blend in?</em> Rey thinks.<br/>
Then she follows Gwen’s guide to street of the market, stopping once in a while in front of stores with cute displays.</p><p>“So, hows your work?” Asks Gwen in the middle of their shopping, walking side to side with Rey. After spending around 30 minutes hopping from one stalls to the other now Rey’s hand holds an organic bag filled with a carton of guava juice and potatoes while Gwen holds a bag with apples and a loaf of bread. Rey shrugs at her question.<br/>
“Everything okay I guess, you?” All that Rey knew about where her roommate is that she works at a fancy corporation. She doesn’t know why Gwen live in a shoddy apartment with her though. Her monthly allowance must be good, so why Unkar’s place?</p><p>“My manager is in a shitty mood for the past few days because his date with a girl failed.” Gwen chuckles, “I feel like shit but when I know his date fails, it makes me feels ten times better!” Rey glances up at Gwen and smiles.<br/>
“I feel bad you have a terrible manager. My manager is a great guy.”<br/>
“Terrible is an understatement.” Gwen rolls her eyes. “But.. the pay is good, so..” Gwen adds, shrugging her shoulder.</p><p>“Gwen, can I ask you something? You don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to.” Gwen looks down at Rey smiling,<br/>
“Go for it.”<br/>
“If your pay is good, why are you staying at Unkar’s? I mean.. the place is.. shit. The heater in the hall is not even fixed for a few months.” The girls slowed down their walk, stopping right in front of a nice little cafe with parfait, pancakes and waffles in the display.</p><p>“How about a pancake?” Gwen turns to Rey.</p><p>...</p><p>The cafe is a really nice place. It has colourful mosaic tiles with white walls, wooden chairs and tables, and green plants with little yellow flowers that climb up the walls of the cafe. There’s a a small crystal clear vase with a pink flower in it on every table of the cafe and on the walls there are old pictures of the history of Coruscant. In the cafe display there are various cakes and colourful little macaroons. The waitress a nice young lady who serves Rey and Gwen’s order on their table, she smiles warmly then walk away to tend to other customer. Rey take a sip of her strawberry milkshakes. She has a dry throat after walking for almost an hour around the busy market, she's feeling thankful they found a cute cafe in the midst of their walk. They sat near the cafe’s display, with Gwen’s seat looking out to the front of the shop.</p><p>“So, about your question,” Gwen put down her glass of lemonade after drinking from it, leaning unto the table looking at Rey. “I have to send money to my mom back in Alderaan. That’s why I can’t spend too much money on myself. Besides, the apartment where we live is just a place to sleep you know. I rather spend my money on something like clothing to enjoy myself.” She said. “If I live in a great or good place but I can’t buy myself a nice jacket, or blouse, or heels... “ Gwen scrunched up her nose, “that’s even sadder.” Rey nods at Gwen completely understands her from one girl to another.</p><p>“What about you? What’s your story Rey?” Rey freezes. She looks at her roommate’s blue eyes not knowing what to say.<br/>
“Story?..” Rey chirps.<br/>
“Where you from, your parents,” Gwen said, “But you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.. I just.. you’re my roommate for the past 6 months and frankly, I don’t know much about you..” adds her quickly. Rey nods at Gwen, she understands what Gwen means. Gwen is right. If she’s in Gwen’s shoes she’d want to know who her roommate is, in case she live with a serial killer or something.</p><p>“I haven’t kill anyone.” Rey chirps.</p><p>
  <em>Oh that’s awkward.</em>
</p><p>“That won’t happen, i-if you’re worried about that. As for where I come from, I’m from Jakku. My parents died when I was 5 and I moved to Coruscant about a year ago, when a friend of mine offers me a job at the supermarket.” She adds quickly. Avoiding the other facts in her life. Gwen frowns, reach out to touch Rey’s hand on the table.</p><p>“Oh.. I’m so sorry to hear that.”<br/>
Rey shakes her head and smiles, “it’s okay, it was years ago.”<br/>
“It must be hard, you were still a little girl..” said Gwen still holding Rey’s hand on the table. Then she glances up when the bell on the door of the café rings a signal to new customers who just walk into the cafe.</p><p>“Are you fucking.. what the..” she curses, looking straight behind Rey. Rey frowns, she turns on her back to see what Gwen is cursing about. Her eyes immediately stop dead at the sight of Han Solo The Ghost’s son. The guy is wearing casual clothes this time; a white t-shirt and blue jeans. His eyes obscured by a black sunglasses.</p><p>“That’s my boss!” Whispers Gwen. Rey turns to look at Gwen alarmly.<br/>
“w-What?” She turns on her back again. There are two guys at the cashier now, ordering.<br/>
“The black haired one is my boss, he’s the CEO at the company that I work for, and the guy with ginger hair behind him is the finance manager, MY manager!” Whispers Gwen again. Gwen’s upper body is leaning at the top of their table. Rey’s ears are ringing now.</p><p><em>Gwen’s boss? Her roommate’s boss?</em><br/>
The world is a small place.</p><p>“Oh shit. They see me.” Gwen look away to look at Rey who looks bewildered right now, staring at Gwen. “Be cool.” Whispers Gwen before there’s a shadow forecasting her.</p><p>“Christie. What are you doing here?” Said an unknown voice to Rey. Rey look up, finding a tall man with ginger hair looking down at Gwen.<br/>
“Hello Mr. Hux, just enjoying my Sunday I suppose.” Said Gwen. The man, Mr. Hux nodded and glances at Rey, “this is my roommate, Rey.” Gwen adds.</p><p>The man, Mr. Hux smiled warmly at her and holds out his right hand for Rey to shake. Rey look at his outstretched hand nervously, <em> did he really want me to shake it? </em> Rey then quickly shook the man’s hand.</p><p>“Nice to meet you, I’m Gwen’s manager at work.”<br/>
Rey nodded solemnly, “Nice to meet you too.” Rey said meekly.</p><p>“Armitage! Bring your own goddamn coffee!” Yells someone from behind Rey. Rey froze at the voice.</p><p>
  <em>It’s Han Solo The Ghost’s son’s voice!</em>
</p><p>Another shadow forecasts Gwen. Rey bravely look up at the new comer.<br/>
“Oh, Christie, nice to see you here.” He said. Gwen smiles at the new comer and stood up.<br/>
“Mr. Solo,” greeted Gwen, nodding politely. Rey still sitting on her chair looking at the exchange dumbly. <em> These people are ridiculously tall.</em> Rey thinks. They are all 6 feet something. Rey had to crane her neck to see them from her sitting position.<br/>
“Enjoying your Sunday I see.” Said Mr. Solo to Gwen. Then he glances down at Rey who’s frozen on her chair. Even though the guy is wearing a black sunglass she can feel his eyes raking up Rey’s face.</p><p>“I know you..” said Han Solo The Ghost’s son to no one in particular. <em> This can be awkward or great, in case of Han Solo’s request.</em> Rey thinks.</p><p>“This is my roommate, Rey Johnson, we’re shopping for groceries.” Said Gwen. Rey shot up from her chair. She nodded nervously at Han Solo’s son. Her hand twitching in front of her.<br/>
“we met at Anavrin a few days ago, do you remember me?” He said, ignoring Gwen. Gwen and Armitage crane their necks at that. Han Solo’s son took his sunglasses off, tucking it to his t-shirt’s collar. He hold out his palm at Rey and smile warmly at her. His smile is the most beautiful thing Rey ever seen in her life.</p><p>“I’m Ben Solo, Ms. Christie’s co-worker.”</p><p>Rey blinks. Now she’s staring at a pair of beautiful bright hazel eyes. Sun shining from the window next to her makes him look like an angel. His black hair fell nicely as if he just walks out of a hair salon while she looks like shit right now. Well, to be fair, she always looks like shit.</p><p>His hand still outstretched waiting for Rey to shake it. Rey blink again. “O-oh, um,” Rey shook his hand nervously and nodded at his previous question, “I-I do remember you” Rey mentally curses herself for stuttering. His grip is warm and it felt sure. He didn’t flaunt his position as the CEO, he just said he’s Gwen’s co-worker.</p><p>
  <em>Ben Solo.<br/>
His name is Ben Solo.</em>
</p><p>“You two have meet each other?” Asks Mr. Hux confused. His question waking Rey up from her reverie.<br/>
“Yeah, at Anavrin.” Said Ben Solo casually. Gwen looks between Ben and Rey curiously.<br/>
“Rey works there, right Rey?” Said Gwen. Rey can only nod at that.</p><p><em>Speaking of, where’s Han Solo The Ghost?</em> Thinks Rey. He’s not clinging to his son now.</p><p>“Well, have a good Sunday ladies. We must go now.” Said Armitage.<br/>
“Yes, have a good Sunday too Mr. Hux, Mr. Solo.” Said Gwen nodding at each of the men. Rey can feel Ben’s stare at her before he look at Gwen and nod at her before turning away heading to the café’s door.</p><p>Solo and Hux walk out of the cafe, leaving Rey bewildered with new information she has to process now. The girls sit down after the two guys went out of the cafe. Rey looks longingly at Ben Solo’s back. </p><p>
  <em>His name is Ben Solo. </em>
</p><p>“You've meet him?” Asks Gwen.<br/>
“Huh?” Rey snaps her look back to Gwen.<br/>
“My boss, Ben Solo, you've meet him before?”<br/>
“Oh, no no, I saw him when he shopped at Anavrin a few times and I just kind of.. bumped into him.” Rey answered meekly. She drinks her Strawberry Milkshake again. Her heart just soars knowing her mysterious man’s name.</p><p>...</p><p>“What was that about?” Armitage drove the newest BMW series that he bought a few weeks ago down the road. They had lunch in District 9, now they’re driving back to Ben’s apartment.<br/>
“What?” Ben asks his friend back. Armitage smirks knowingly.<br/>
“The brunette. She looks bedazzled by you.” He says as he chuckles.</p><p>Ben gestures his hand in the air, “She just bumped into me, nothing else happened.” He said, dismissively, looking at the streets outside the car. Armitage just hums at that, he thinks that If Ben want to tell him something, then he will.</p><p>They know each other so well because of their friendship that has lasts for more than 10 years. Armitage knows Ben’s dark past and so does Ben. Armitage feels like this kind of friendship that he has with Ben will keep on going until the day he breathes his last breath for each of them holds their darkest history. To make an enemy of someone who holds your deepest secret is a suicide move. Both Ben and Armitage knows this.</p><p>While Armitage is busy driving the car, Ben’s head keep on replying the moment he shakes the brunette’s hand. He took off his sunglasses for he wanted to see her eyes again. They’re a pair of beautiful hazel eyes, just like him. <em>Is it the color?</em> He feels like there’s something more to it, he just doesn’t know what it is yet.</p><p>When their hands touched, Ben immediately remembers how her whole body trembles when she bumped into him a few days ago. She had felt so fragile. It makes him feel alert and protective to her somehow. The other woman who came to them when Rey bumped into him had said that she’s Rey’s friend and that Rey probably just saw a cockroach, and that Rey is very scared of it, that’s why her whole body shook.</p><p>But no, Ben Solo is not that stupid. Ben saw how the girl sweats and her eyes unfocused as if she just see.. a ghost. Ben almost laughed at himself for that. Or maybe the other woman is in fact telling him the truth, since he believes in no such thing as ghost. Must be the cockroach then. It must be.

<em> What is it about the plain girl that makes her so intriguing to me?</em>

Ben closes his eyes for a moment, only to have a pair of hazel eyes stare back at him. He opens his eyes, looking out of the window in the car.

<em> Ah that’s right. I know her name now.
Rey Johnson.
What secrets are you hiding miss Johnson? </em></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>thank you for reading this piece of sh*t :D</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. The Day Rey Formulate Her Plan</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A few days has passed since Rose Tico heard her best friend, Rey, screamed from the next aisle in the supermarket. She remembers she ran fast to get to her, with a fake scenario replaying again and again in her head, in case Rey bumps into a customer and she freaks them out. She did bumped into one customer, a fine man Rose must say.</p>
<p>Rose knows that her best friend has an ability to talk and see ghosts. She knows when Rey screams, it means she just saw one of them, or several of them at once. Rey had told Rose that there are several ghosts running around Anavrin but most of them are kind ghosts so it doesn’t bother Rose.</p>
<p>Rose remembers the time when Rey walk up to her in the school garden when they’re in 6th grade, saying that she needed to stop crying about Paige because it makes Paige sad. Rose had stared at Rey as if she just grows three heads. But then Rey said something that hit home.</p>
<p>
  <em> “Paige said, it’s okay to wear her favourite sweater and skirt. And to read her books. But you have to stop crying. She’s actually happy now.” Rey said, looking down at her shoes. Rose is still staring at her dumbly.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“what?”</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“her favorite green sweater, and short yellow skirt. You can wear them all you want now, and her Jane Austen books.. you can take them from her desk and read them whenever you want.”</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“h-how do you.. know..” </em>
</p>
<p>Paige had died from a plane crash, along with their older brother, Dean Tico when Rose is in 6th grade. Rose was eleven at the time, and Paige was two years older than her. Rose and Paige always got into a fight whenever Paige found Rose wearing her favourite green sweater without telling her, or Paige’s favourite yellow skirt, and Rose did burrowed Paige’s books without telling her and it pissed Paige off.</p>
<p>Rose remembers asking Rey how she knows about the sweater, the skirt, and the books. She remembers Rey answering Rose with her head held down, and her brown hair almost obscuring her whole face.</p>
<p>
  <em> “I can .....”<br/>Rose had to strain her ears to be able to hear Rey’s answer. Even then, she still can’t hear Rey’s answer.<br/>“What?”<br/>“I can ....”</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“I can’t hear you,” Said Rose. Rey left immediately after that, not bothering to answer Rose’s question.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>A few days later when Rose is having lunch in the school’s yard all by herself, Rey comes up to her again. Rose, about to bite into her burger, froze when she sees the girl walking towards her. Rey stopped four feet away from Rose that’s currently sitting down on the grass, next to a tree.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“Paige said she knows who gave you that chocolate on valentine’s day when you’re in fifth grade.”</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“What?” Again, Rose is very confused with her classmate’s behavior. Rey is known to be very quiet and well, weird. She knows not many kids want to talk or hangout with her because of her gloomy look and odd behavior.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“Paige said it’s Ken. The boy in the Lee Family next door who moved to Citadel 5 months ago.” Rey added. Rose’s mouth went agape. She forces her eyes to blink.<br/>“How.. do you know that...?”</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Rey went quiet for a few seconds before she answered, “Because I can see and talk to Paige.” </em>
</p>
<p>After that, Rose remembers Rey said that Paige told her to tell Rose to stop crying at night about Paige and Dean. Rey said both Paige and Dean are happy now, they only have to walk to the beyond and start their new journey in the afterlife. But they can’t leave Rose when Rose is still crying and sobbing at night thinking about Paige and Dean. After Rey talked to Rose about it, Rey said to Rose that Paige and Dean are already gone to start their new journey in the afterlife. Rey also told Rose that Paige had been following her around school and even back home when Rey ignored Paige before finally deciding to talk to Rose.</p>
<p>Since then, Rose and Rey have become best friends. In the early stages of their friendship, Rey is still really quiet and timid, even though Rose knows her secret now. It explains everything.</p>
<p>There are rumours going around saying that Rey is a freak because she likes to talk all by herself and that she should be living in a psychiatric ward instead of a normal house. Some even say that she brings bad luck. But since befriending Rey, Rose knows that Rey is actually talking to the children ghosts that she met while in school. And that’s including Paige.</p>
<p>Rey is really kind and sweet, once you get to know her, Rose thinks. Rey once baked cookies for Rose on Rose’s birthday, and she turns out to be really good at Geography while Rose is really bad at it. Rey would always help Rose with her Geography homework and Rose would always defend Rey when some kid is bothering her and sit down with Rey at lunch.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>...</p>
<p>Armitage Hux is a man known to be very impeccable and neat in the First Order Ltd. Half of it is true.</p>
<p>Today is Wednesday and at 8.12pm Armitage finally walks into his apartment. He stayed at Ben’s place until Sunday before Ben kicked him out of his place. Truth be told, he is a man who believes in the afterlife. Ben had laughed at him when he told Ben about it. He took mental notes not to talk about it to Ben anymore.</p>
<p>Everyone in the office thinks that Armitage has everything under control. But because he thinks about his job a lot, his private life is left neglected. He failed his date with a beautiful and intelligent woman named Millie that he met through a friend. She had said that Armitage is not exactly her type and he bores her. The woman had left him at the table right before the waitress served Armitage his food.</p>
<p>He had tried to fix his approach towards women but sometimes it’s just hard and difficult. Women left him for the same reasons: they’re bored or Armitage bores them. What is it that he needs to fix? He thinks about it a lot when he’s not working.</p>
<p>Sometimes Armitage feels lonely with his life. Well, if he’s lonely then so is his best friend, Ben. From Armitage’s point of view, Ben is running away from the past when he is supposed to just face it. Armitage thinks that Ben cannot shake the regret about what had happened to Kaydel 10 years ago. He knows that Ben feels guilty with what had transpired to her. He had advised Ben to go and see a doctor to talk about it but he denied it many times. Ben said to him that he knows it was not his fault and that he is just hurt by Kaydel’s betrayal.</p>
<p>But Armitage knows his best buddy. He feels partly guilty. Armitage knows that Ben thinks it’s his fault that Kaydel is now six feet under.</p>
<p>Armitage took off his working shoes and walked towards his kitchen to open his refrigerator. He found rotten carrots, celery, and grapes, 2 eggs, and an empty juice carton. He sighed tiredly.</p>
<p>For the past two days he’s been working extra hours at the office because of a problem at the factory of the First Order. Another machine in the cereal factory broke down. It is the second time in one month. The production of the cereal is decreasing, and there are several reports of ‘ungodly activities’ in the factory resulting in a few of the workers in the factory signing out and he had read the reports of low performances from the workers.</p>
<p>He knows he needs to get to the bottom of this. He had talked to Ben about it, but of course he didn’t talk to Ben about the ‘ungodly activities’ in the factory, or the workers who signed out because they said someone or something keeps on bothering them when they’re working. Ben will not hear any of it.</p>
<p>So he plans to go to the factory in the remote place of Takodana on Friday alone. Maybe he can take his junior Christie? Chalk it up as an experience outside the office. Yes, definitely. As much as he hates checking the factory and its ‘ungodly activities’ but he knows he has to. He needs to see it for himself. At least his junior is coming with him. Christie looks like a very logical woman who won’t shake when she sees a door or a window closing by itself.</p>
<p>Armitage went around his kitchen, taking notes of what is out of stock. Then he put his shoes back on and went out of his apartment heading to the closest supermarket in the area, Anavrin. When Armitage walks past the door of his neighbour who died because of a stroke a few days ago, he can feel his goosebumps went wild. Armitage then walked briskly towards the elevator, pressing the Lobby button wildly.</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>Armitage mentally checked dish soap off of his list. He put down a lot of things in the trolley already, considering he rarely went out for grocery shopping. He took mental notes not to shop for fresh vegetables if he would not cook them any sooner to avoid wasting food that he bought. He’s thinking of buying canned foods instead. Not as healthy as fresh vegetables but it lasts longer. Armitage was walking down the aisle in the supermarket, pushing on his trolley when he heard the sound of a little girl crying.</p>
<p>Armitage cranes his ears, trying to locate the girl. It’s probably another customer’s child that lost her mother or father while shopping. He meant to help the little girl but when he saw the girl in front of him, a supermarket staff was already there, comforting the child.</p>
<p>“Shhh.. shh.. it’s okay, we’ll find your mommy,” said the staff. The child is around 4 or 5 years old, with two pigtails on her shoulder and she’s wearing a pink dress. The staff is crouching low to face the crying little girl.</p>
<p>The child hiccups, her small hands brushing her eyes. Tears run down the poor child’s face.<br/>“I want my mommy,” cried the little girl again.<br/>“Yes, okay, I understand, we’ll find your mommy okay? Come now, come with me.. it’s okay..” the staff is petting the little girl’s head lovingly now.</p>
<p><em> The staff has a really sweet voice.</em> Armitage thinks.</p>
<p>The staff then stood straight while still holding the little girl’s hand and turned sideway, almost facing Armitage. Only then, when her shiny brown hair finally went away from her face, Armitage acknowledged the girl.</p>
<p>
  <em>Christie’s roommate.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>What was her name again? Mia? Abby? Rey? Rey. </em>
</p>
<p>The girl struck Armitage off of his feet. He’s attracted to the girl immediately. She may look plain and not at all the same type with Millie, but that is it. She’s everything Millie isn’t! Armitage thinks. Since Rey is Christie’s roommate, Armitage now has a plan to talk to Christie about her. Maybe ask a few things about Rey first. Like if she’s single at the moment. That’d be great, Armitage thinks.</p>
<p>He blinks when Rey and the little girl are out of his sight. Armitage never felt the need to go to the office to see his junior this much before.</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>It is 9pm and Rey and Rose are currently eating a hamburger at Max’s Burger. The cook, Finn Storm is Rose’s boyfriend. The evening air is very chilly, Rey is glad that she finally bought herself a new jacket to warm her body. It’s not an expensive jacket with a branded name or anything but it’s hers, bought with her own money, so she’s satisfied and happy with it.</p>
<p>It’s been a few days since Rey knows his name, Ben Solo, and she still doesn't know what to do to get to him, or to talk to him. She knows she’ll never ‘have’ someone like him, but just to be close to him, to be in a close range with him is already satisfying for her. But she needs to be near him more. She needs to know the answer as to why would a ghost disappear the moment she touches him? This has never happened to Rey before, it confuses her and thrills her. Rey thinks that Ben Solo could be the answer to her suffering.</p>
<p>She knows that Ben works as the CEO at First Order ltd. But now what? He rarely shows up at Anavrin, from the look of things, he is a really busy man and it’s impossible to ask Gwen about him. Gwen will be suspicious as to why Rey would ask about her boss.</p>
<p>“Rey??” Call Rose. Rey looked up from her half bitten hamburger.<br/>“I said, do you remember when we first met each other?” Ask Rose. She pops a fries into her mouth. Rey cocks her head.</p>
<p>“When you told me about Paige, and her green sweater and yellow skirt, her Jane Austen book collection, and the chocolate that my neighbor gave me,”</p>
<p>
  <em>Oh.. that’s right.</em>
</p>
<p>Rose chuckles, “you almost give me a heart attack as to why on earth you know about those things.”<br/>“Of course, how could I forget about it..” said Rey. An idea just popped into her head. She’s hoping she’ll meet Han Solo The Ghost soon.</p>
<p>“Hey ladies! Thank you for waiting until the end of my shift!” Greets Finn Storm cheerily. He hugs Rose from behind and kisses Rose’s head. His hands enveloping Rose’s waist.<br/>“Hey babe,” greets Rose, turning to kiss Finn’s cheek.</p>
<p>Rey smiled at the couple in front of her. Another thing that she can never have.</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>“Come again?”<br/>Han Solo The Ghost finally showed up at Anavrin on a Thursday afternoon. Now he’s sitting in Anavrin's staff parking lot, looking up at Rey who’s pacing around like a penguin when she told Han her plan. Rey is using her break time to talk to Han in the deserted staff parking lot. There’s no one but her and Han, also a couple of motorcycles, bikes, two cars, and a big garbage can.</p>
<p>“Tell me something that only you and your son knows. Only then, I think, he’ll believe me that I can talk to you.”<br/>“You’re probably right, okay let me think first..”</p>
<p>Han Solo then went quiet for about three minutes before he spoke again.<br/>“He wets his bed when he’s 6 and said it wasn’t him but Batman did it.”</p>
<p>Rey snickered, “That one is good. Can you think at least two more facts? So that he can truly, truly believe me?”<br/>Han nods enthusiastically, “Okay okay, let me think again”.</p>
<p>Rey stops her pacing and sits in front of Han. Ever since Han knows that she’s easily scared, whenever Han met Rey, he would put on his ‘nice ghost’ mode. It means his face and body is clean of any wounds and blood. Rey is fairly happy with that. It makes talking to Han easier.</p>
<p>“He loves doing calligraphy because it calms him down somehow. And I used to buy him ink and feathers for calligraphy from all over the world.”</p>
<p>Rey nods, “okay.. anything else you can think of?”</p>
<p>Han Solo The Ghost suddenly looked straight behind Rey, with the look of nostalgia on his face. His grey eyes glazed over, as if he can see back to 25 years ago.</p>
<p>“He loves coming with me and his uncle, Lando, to our ship in the dock. He used to call his uncle Uncle Wanwo until he’s eight. He thinks that.. Being a sailor is very much fun. He had hoped that he could become one too. Just like me and Lando.” He said. Han Solo The Ghost’s face turns sad. He then snaps out of his reverie and looks down to the asphalt where he’s sitting.</p>
<p>The wind grazes Rey’s hair. She went quiet in front of Han, she knows that he’s sad. She can see it in his face.</p>
<p>“Im sorry.. Im sorry for making you think back on all those times.” Said Rey. Han Solo The Ghost shook his head.<br/>“No, it’s okay. I understand why you want to know.. we need to convince Ben that you can see me.”<br/>Rey nods again, “okay.. thank you.”<br/>Han shook his head, “no.. Thank You” He said. Rey smiled at the old ghost.</p>
<p>“Don’t thank me yet. I haven’t helped you with anything Mr. Ghost.”</p>
<p>“Stop calling me that!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>...</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“.. so in conclusion, our profit this month is decreasing because of it.” Armitage as finance manager has just finished presenting the monthly report to Ben on a Thursday. Ben as the CEO has been listening intently to his Finance Manager. There are other managers; Sale, Advertising, and Production Manager that are gathering in the meeting for their monthly report to him.</p>
<p>The mood in the room just turned sour listening to Armitage as Finance Manager’s monthly report. The rest of the managers turn to look at Ben who sat at the end of the glass table. He looks at the chart in front of him that Armitage just presented.</p>
<p>“Simon?” Ben calls to his Production Manager, messaging the gap between his eyes for the sudden headache that hit him.<br/>“Yes Ben?”<br/>“Care to explain how the heck our machines broke down for the second time this month?” He asks the PM. Ben’s mood just turned dark when Armitage ended his presentation.</p>
<p>Ben can hear Simon’s nervous throat clearing. Simon fixed his red tie nervously before answering to Ben.<br/>“Well Ben, I myself had met with the technician two days ago at the factory in Takodana and frankly, they don’t know what’s wrong with the machines. We just changed the old parts with new parts, oiled them every week and had routine checks every three days.” Simon looked down to read at his notes.<br/>“The machines just.. broke down Ben.”</p>
<p>“They don’t just break down without reason Simon. Fix this. Arrange another meeting with the technician, I want to talk to them.” Ben said firmly and aggressively.</p>
<p>“Ben?” Simon chirps.</p>
<p>“I said, I want to talk to them. I can’t go to the factory this week, my schedule is packed with meetings with branch directors tomorrow, therefore Monday. I want to talk to the technician myself.”<br/>“I-in the factory in Takodana Ben?”</p>
<p>Ben groans, “Yes.”</p>
<p>“Now, can we hear about the sales Zori?”</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>The meeting ends about 40 minutes later. Ben was just about to exit the bathroom when he heard one of his managers, probably Simon, talk outside the room.<br/>“Maz the chief at the factory reported to me that there are several ungodly activities at the factory..” he whispers, but Ben can hear his words perfectly.</p>
<p>“What do you mean ungodly?” Ben idly identified Matthew, the Advertising Manager.<br/>“The machines would turn on by themselves at night when it was not supposed to, Maz herself and the technician had checked if they’re on timer, but no. Nothing. The heater never works.. All the rooms in the factory are in constant freezing air. Maz had told the technician about it but they said nothing is wrong with the heater.”</p>
<p>“Fuck me Simon. Do you really believe that?” Zori whispers loudly.<br/>“Shh! Keep your voice down! Ben could’ve heard you!” Whispers Simon alarmed.</p>
<p><em>They’re so stupid, lord help me, </em> Ben thinks.</p>
<p>“It’s not just that Zori. The several workers that signed out,”<br/>“How many are there?” Matthew cuts Simon.<br/>“8 or 9 I suppose. They were all saying that there’s something, someone, in the factory that keeps on bothering them.” Simon continues, “one of them claims to be pushed down while sweeping the floor, another one claims to see a.. monster in one of the rooms in the factory. Another one also claims to see that thing too and then the day after that, him and his whole family consisting of one older sister and his mother, fell sick. Right after he saw that thing.”</p>
<p><em>What?.. What are these things? </em> Ben’s ears are ringing now.</p>
<p>The group went silent. the silence infuriates Ben. Do his managers really believe in things like that?</p>
<p>“A monster?” Zori quips.<br/>“Look, I don’t believe in these things either but when I’m faced with it, I’m half believing and half not. But if you come down to the factory you’ll see that the situation in the factory is a bit concerning. Plus, Ben is expecting to come down to it on Monday..” <br/>“Well maybe if this thing is real, he’ll be able to see it himself.” Said Matthew.</p>
<p>“Does Armitage know?” Ask Zori suddenly.<br/>“Why?” Simon asks her back.<br/>“Well, he’s Ben’s best buddy. If he knows there’s a good chance that Ben already knows.”<br/>“Well if he does, he’s not gonna call ghostbusters or anything Zori for fuck’s sake.” Said Matthew.<br/>“I wasn’t about to say that you –“</p>
<p>The group’s voice then went smaller and smaller, clearly walking away from their previous position until Ben couldn’t hear them anymore.</p>
<p>
  <em> Does Armitage know? </em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>in the next chapter we'll have Rey execute her plan :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. The Day Rey Tell Him His Secrets</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gwen had doubts when her manager, Hux, had asked her to accompany him to see the cereal factory located in Takodana, three hours drive from Coruscant. He had said that it could count as an experience outside the office. But oh well, she’d say yes to anything to get her away from her computer on a Friday.</p><p>What’s even weirder is that Hux had asked Gwen about Rey in the office on Thursday. He had asked if Rey was seeing anyone, what she’s like and about Rey’s job. When Hux asked those questions to her, she’d know immediately what Hux wants to do with the girl. Hux can be an asshole sometimes but she doesn’t know her senior’s private life or what he’s like with a woman, so Gwen answered all his questions normally and with a straight face. To Gwen, Rey is like a delicate flower and she doesn’t want to be the one who help others to taint or hurt her.</p><p>Gwen had been sitting primly at the passenger’s seat right next to Hux who’s been driving his sleek black two doors BMW for the past three hours. They had a short break in the rest area, now the duo is approaching the security checkpoint just a few meters outside the factory building.</p><p>Gwen can see the building clearly from afar, as it is the only big grey building standing in the field of greens. The factory is located on top of a hill surrounded by trees, a remote location in Takodana. The nearest building is 5 kilometers away from the factory. The factory just stood there on top of the hill like a giant sore thumb sticking out in the field of greenery.</p><p>Gwen looks down at her wristwatch, it shows 5.20pm Gwen and Hux had left right after lunch. The cloud around the factory is already darkening as if it’s already evening. Gwen is looking at the greying cloud above the factory when Hux clears his throat, making Gwen jump a little from her seat.</p><p>“Christie, do you believe in ghosts?”</p><p>Gwen stares dumbly at her manager from the passenger’s seat.</p><p>“um.. “ she doesn’t know how to answer that question. Is this a test to put her in a higher position? Hux looks at her then puts his eyes back on the road in front of them. They just drove past the security checkpoint at the front. The factory is still a few meters of drive away. After they drive past the security checkpoint, the road heading to the factory is a two-way road. There is nothing but tall trees and bushes on the left side and right side of the road.</p><p>“I.. think so sir? I do believe in spirits but I don’t let it bother me. I haven’t been in a situation with such things.” Gwen decided to answer it truthfully. Hux nodded at that. Gwen turns her head to look outside the car’s window. She noticed that the cloud above the factory is getting even darker. Creating an unapproachable look to the factory. She feels kind of uneasy. If anything happens, they’re quite far from the nearest town, about 28km away. <em>How long will the police reach us? Police? Why would I think about the Police? </em> Gwen suddenly thinks of the Police in case anything goes awry in the factory.</p><p>
  <em>It’s just a quick look. Nothing will happen. Gwen reminds herself.</em>
</p><p>The car finally came to a stop. Hux changed the gear into Park mode and turned off the car.</p><p>“I want to be honest with you, we actually received several reports about.. Ungodly activities at the factory, and so I decided to see to it myself. You also helped me make the report this month, you know our production is decreasing. There’s a gap between last month’s production and this month’s production.” Hux said, turning in his seat to look at Gwen. Gwen’s blue eyes went wide at that.</p><p>“This factory sir?” she asks. Hux nodded again, his expression grim. Gwen’s manager, who always looks so brave and has a cocky gait, looks like a frightened cat now. To be honest, if Gwen herself wasn’t nervous because they already arrived at the factory and it’s too late to turn back now, she’d laugh at Hux’s expression.</p><p>“I think we should still see what’s really going on in the factory.” Gwen chirps.</p><p>As soon as Gwen and Hux went out of the car, the duo walked into the front of the factory building. The factory is really grey and big up close. The air outside is crisp considering all the trees surrounding the factory, and chillier, colder than Coruscant.</p><p>As soon as they stepped into the factory, they were greeted with a small room painted cream, with a grey concrete floor. The light in the room is bright enough to light the entire room sufficiently. Not a half dimmed light that Gwen was expecting, after hearing what her manager had said to her in the car.</p><p>There’s one door on each side of the room. Gwen best guess is the door to her left went straight to the production room. The door in front of her has a “Staff Only” sign on it, and the door to her right has an “Inventory Room” sign on it. Gwen is currently standing on Hux’s left. Hux walks confidently to a man that’s sitting in front of them behind a tall wooden table painted in light blue that’s right next to the door in front of Gwen. The man had stared at them the moment they walked past the front door of the factory. The man, Gwen notices, is wearing a thick bright orange jacket even when it’s not even winter yet. But she supposes Takodana is indeed chillier than Coruscant.</p><p>“Hello, I’m Armitage Hux. I called this afternoon.” said Hux to the man. The man looks down, seems like he’s checking out something.<br/>
“Oh, right, the FM.” he said curtly. The man stood up and walked around the wooden table, “this way sir, Maz is already inside.” said the man while walking towards the door on Gwen’s left. Hux immediately follows the man in the orange jacket and Gwen is tailing behind him.</p><p>When she enters the production room, Gwen feels it.</p><p>The hair on the nape of her neck stood up. She doesn't feel cold when she’s outside of the factory.. She can feel the chill yes, but not this. The room is freezing. She can see white smokes when she breathes. Gwen can see Hux in front of her, tightening his blazer around him. She mentally curses herself for wearing a thin silk blouse.</p><p>“Where are the workers?”<br/>
“Most of the workers went home already sir. There’s only a few of us left in this hour.” said the man in the thick orange jacket.<br/>
“Is there something wrong with the heater? It’s freezing in here!” Hux said, as he folds his hands on his chest. Gwen too, folds her hands on her chest. She should’ve brought her blazer with her but alas, she left it in her cubicle in the First Order office.</p><p>The man shakes his head, “we don’t know sir. There are a few heater technicians coming this week, all of them said nothing is wrong with the heater. So we’re lost sir.” They keep walking across the wide room, passing six giant silver steel tubes.<br/>
“We just put on our jackets, we don’t know how to fix the heater.” adds the man.</p><p>“Have you been experiencing it too?” ask Hux suddenly, he’s walking next to the man now and Gwen walks just a few steps behind them. The man turns his head to look at Hux. The man immediately knows what Hux is asking about. He furrows his brows and he answers;<br/>
“Not me sir, but Jay did. He’s one of the nine workers that signed out of the factory this month.”<br/>
“Can you tell me about it? About what happened to Jay?” ask Hux again.</p><p>The man stops his walking. Gwen keeps walking until she’s standing next to the man. When Gwen turns her head to look at the man, Gwen can see his face went pale and his lips quivering.</p><p>“Manny!” someone just yells from behind Gwen. Gwen turns, finding a woman about five foot two walks up to them. The woman has her hair in a high bun, and she’s wearing a wool jacket outside a green jumpsuit. Gwen guessed that it’s the factory working suit. Gwen stares at the woman's huge glasses. <em> How old is she anyway? How come they let this old woman still work in a factory?</em>

</p><p>“That’s okay boy, I’ll tell them about what happens to him. You’re good to go now.” she said. The man in the orange jacket nodded at the woman, and then he walk away, heading to the direction where they just came from.</p><p>“A few ghost stories is all it takes to make this factory feels like a museum.” the woman mumbles, looking at the man’s back that’s walking away from them. She shakes her head and focuses her sight on Gwen and Hux now. “hello people from the higher ups. I’m Maz, chief of the factory. Well then, come along! I’ll tell you what happened in my office.” The woman might be old, but she walks fast giving no time for Gwen and Hux to sight see the production room. They walk briskly, following in behind Maz.</p><p>…</p><p>Thank god for Friday.</p><p>Rey is currently enjoying her chocolate chip ice cream on a beautiful evening outside a mall in Coruscant. She’s sitting at a bench at the park outside the mall, admiring the cotton candy-like sky above. Rey has been walking around the mall, eating her ice cream, all by herself. Her shift ended at 5pm and she decided to enjoy her Friday by eating ice cream and strolling in the park outside the mall.</p><p>Rose couldn’t go with her because she has a movie date with Finn. Rey is so used to that, even when her heart breaks a little when she hears that Rose can’t go with her to the mall today, she knows that her best friend has a social life too outside their friendship. She just hopes that she can share days like this with someone who knows her, understands her for who she is.</p><p>Rey had told her plan to Han Solo The Ghost and he agreed to it. Han had told her three of Ben’s secrets that other people should not know but Han and Ben himself. It should work. Rey thinks. Now all she has to do is to find him and then talk to him. But the man could be anywhere right now. Rey thinks again, glumly.</p><p>“GIVE THE ICE CREAM TO ME!!”</p><p>Rey screamed out of shock. There’s a little boy, around 7 or 8 pops out next to her.</p><p>“GIVE IT TO ME! I WANT IT!”</p><p>The boy is wearing what looks to be a blue hospital gown. His face is pale, he’s bald and he has dark under eyes. He looks really thin and fragile. His grey eyes staring daggers at Rey and her chocolate chip ice cream.</p><p>Rey holds out her ice cream, “H-here j-just take it” she said nervously.</p><p>The boy stares at the ice cream in her hand, then, he opens up his mouth. At first Rey sees that he has normal teeth just like what normal kids have. Then in the blink of an eye, his teeths sharpen to what looks like all canine teeths, like a crocodile’s mouth. Rey jerks back her stretched out hand, causing the ice cream to fall from her hand and hit the ground. The boy shut his mouth up, staring at the fallen ice cream. Immediately sensing the little boy’s wrath, Rey apologizes to him.<br/>
“I’m so sorry, I-I wasn’t thinking..”</p><p>“You dropped my ice cream.” said the boy, looking up from the fallen ice cream at Rey.<br/>
“I know, I’m so sorry..”<br/>
“YOU DROPPED MY ICE CREAM!!!” he screams again. This time, all of his sharp teeths are peeking out of his mouth.</p><p>Rey fell from the bench she’s been sitting on. She got up fast and ran from the boy.</p><p>“GIVE ME AN ICE CREAM! YOU DROPPED MY ICE CREAM!!” The boy ran after Rey.</p><p>What a shit luck! Rey thinks. Just when she thought that she could enjoy her ice cream peacefully. Now she’s running away from a child ghost. She keeps running until she bumped into a solid body.</p><p>“Ow! What the?!” Rey feels the stranger’s arm around her shoulder. She looks back at the boy not a few feet away behind her a few seconds ago, but now he’s gone.</p><p>“Miss Johnson?”</p><p>At that, Rey looked at the stranger that she bumped to.</p><p>
  <em>Ben.</em>
</p><p>“It looks like you have a habit of bumping into people”</p><p>Rey notices that the ghost, again, disappears, just like the ghost in the supermarket. She looks around behind her, making sure that the ghost is really gone. He is gone.<br/>
“Are you looking for someone?” After he steadies her, Ben put both his hands in his pants’ pockets. The warmth that seeps into Rey, disappears. Rey finally turns to look at her saviour and he doesn’t even know it.</p><p>“What?”<br/>
“Are you looking for someone?” he repeats himself. As much as he hates it, but Rey looks like she just lost herself in a maze.</p><p>“N-no.. I was just..”<br/>
<em> What? What did you just do?</em>
“Just..” her hand gesturing in the air.</p><p>“Just..?” Ben’s head moves, following her hand that’s gesturing in the air.<br/>
<em> Think Rey, think!</em>

</p><p>“Bees.” Rey finally said.<br/>
“Bees..?”<br/>
“Y-yes, bees.. Many bees. They’re uh, they’re gone now.” she said, looking around the air.</p><p>“I must be one hell of insects repellent.” Rey frowns at that.<br/>
“What?”<br/>
“First cockroaches and now bees. Do you remember?”</p><p>Rey can feel her face reddens at that.<br/>
“y-yes of course. You’re Ben Solo, Gwen’s boss... I didn’t, I wasn’t,” she stutters. How in the world would she forget about him when for the past week he’s all she’s been thinking about, even a few minutes ago before a ghost screamed at her. Ben suddenly laughs at her.<br/>
“I was just joking, it’s okay..” he said. they‘re standing awkwardly in the middle of the park outside the mall. People walk past them, not knowing the level of awkwardness between them. Ben clears his throat. Rey thought he’s about to say something but he didn’t. Is that.. A sign for her to walk away?</p><p>Rey clears her throat then, she’s shifting her feet, <em>thank you for saving me. Again.</em> Rey said that in her heart. “I should.. Go..” she said meekly. “I was thinking, do you want to join me for tea?” Both of them talk at the same time.</p><p>“What?” they both say it at the same time.<br/>
“Sorry, what did you say?” Ben asks her.<br/>
“N-no, never mind, did you say something?”<br/>
“I said, do you want to join me for tea?”</p><p>…</p><p>How in the world he ends up with her sitting in front of him, drinking tea and eating scones at a cafe in the mall? Ben thinks, as he shyly stole a glance at Rey, who’s sitting in front of him. She seems nervous. And awkward. He glances back to his tea that he’s currently stirring with a small spoon.</p><p>Armitage is gone since lunch. Ben tried to call him but it went straight to voicemail. He’s gone along with his junior, Christie. <em> Just what in the hell is he doing?</em> He was about to confront Armitage if he knows anything about the rumours that’s going around wildly about the factory in Takodana, but when Ben went to see him in his office after lunch, it’s empty. So does his junior, Christie’s cubicle.

</p><p>“So, how long have you been roommates with Christie?” Ben decided to start the conversation first, since she looks like she won’t start <em>any</em> conversation.<br/>
“About.. 7 months or so..” Rey answered. Her voice is soft as silk.<br/>
“I see.. What are you doing all alone in the park?” He has no idea how to make a conversation with the girl he just met last Sunday. He barely knows the girl.<br/>
“I was just enjoying the scenery.. I wanted to come with a friend but she has a date with her boyfriend.”</p><p>“You don’t have one?”<br/>
Rey who was looking down at her tea, looks up at Ben, “what?”<br/>
“Boyfriend.” he adds, “you look like you’re in your early twenties.. Shouldn’t you be enjoying your Saturday night with friends or your boyfriend maybe”<br/>
“No.. I..” she gulps down before continuing “I don’t have a boyfriend.” Her voice is so small Ben had to strain his ears to be able to hear her in the middle of the busy cafe on a Saturday night.</p><p>Ben looks at the girl in front of him. She’s so.. Closed up. Reserved. She’s not as cheerful as other women in their 20s whose eyes are so full of fun stories to tell him. Yes, he’d dated a girl around the same age as Rey once, and he remembers how she’s like. A wild cat in the savannah. Caused him headaches a lot of the time. It didn’t last long. Rey looks unsettled and on edge almost all of the time. Ben is determined to find out what makes him feel like she’s different. <em>Oh.. is she uncomfortable?</em> </p><p>“Are you uncomfortable? I'm sorry if this is too forward for you.” Now Rey is uncomfortable. She realize that she must be a boring company to have on a Saturday night. And to add to her misery more, Han Solo The Ghost is actually standing next to their table now. Folding his hands on his chest, smirking at Rey. He’s been standing there ever since they sat down 15 minutes ago. He didn’t say anything. He just stands watching at their exchanges amusedly. Rey is uncomfortable from the very start.</p><p>Rey thinks that this is it. This is her chance to talk to him. <em> Here goes nothing..</em><br/>
“No.. I.. I actually have something to say.. To you..” Ben perks up at that. So does Han Solo The Ghost.</p><p>“What is it?” he looks expectantly at Rey. Rey stole a glance at Han Solo The Ghost direction. He’s nodding at her, encouraging her to say what he told her two days ago. She took a deep breath.</p><p>“This will sound weird at first but please.. bear with me and listen to me.” she said nervously. Now that caught Ben’s attention. He nods. Rey clears her voice and gathers up her courage to tell Ben about Han.</p><p>“Actually.. I have been talking to your dad..ever since I saw you that night at the supermarket, when you bought a whiskey” Rey stops and looks at Ben to see his reaction. His brows furrowed. That is not what Ben was expecting her to say to him.</p><p>“What?” he whispers. Rey suddenly feels the room spinning and her heart rates went up.</p><p>“I know your dad has died from a car accident 17 years ago. His name is Han Solo, and he’s a sailor. He died when he’s about to pick you up from school.” she glances at Ben again, afraid of his reaction. So far he’s always a gentleman towards her. She wonders when the CEO facade will break. </p><p>Ben leaned back to his chair. His eyes gleaming as he chuckles at Rey, as if Rey just told him a joke. “Everyone knows that Miss Johnson. It’s everywhere in the news. What exactly are you trying to say?” he folded his arms and shook his head at Rey.</p><p>“I forgot to tell you his mother, my wife, was a senator! That’s everywhere on the news!” said Han Solo The Ghost. He seems panicked now.</p><p>“H-he said you wet the bed when you were 6 and said that it wasn’t you but Batman did it.” Rey said nervously. Ben squints at that. He shook his head again.</p><p>“I.. really don’t know where you’re going. Everyone wet their bed when they’re young.” he chuckles. Then, he took out his wallet and pulled a few dollars out of it, and he put the money under the small vase on the table. And then without ceremony, he stood and walked away from the table, with both his and Rey’s tea still full and blowing hot smokes, and their scones left uneaten, leaving Rey gaping behind him.</p><p>“Go!” Han Solo The Ghost prompted her to run after him.</p><p>Rey blinks, she quickly stood up and ran after Ben.</p><p>They were walking outside the mall now, near the park where Rey bumped into him earlier. The sky has turned dark, and no one else is in the park but them. He’s walking really fast, Rey had to half jog just to be a few feet behind him.</p><p>“Wait! Please!” she calls out to him. Ben Solo gestured a ‘bye-bye’ to her without turning around.</p><p>“You always wanted to be a sailor when you were a kid!!” Rey suddenly yells. She had stopped jogging after him now. She just stood there in the middle of the path in the park. Ben slows down his stride then turns to look at Rey.</p><p>“You’re insane! Every boy, most boys, wanted to be a sailor, Miss Johnson. You have a very good guess though, I was one of them.” he said coldly. He’s about to turn away and walk when Rey yells at him again.<br/>
“you have a hobby of calligraphy!” Rey yells, out of breath because of the jog she did to catch up with him. “Han used to buy you the inks and feathers from all over the world because he knows you loved it so much.”</p><p>Ben’s whole body froze.</p><p>“He.. he knows you once drove the falcon without telling him.. He knows because you just started learning how to drive then, and still bad at your skill in parking, you scratched the falcon.” Ben turns his whole body and starts walking back towards Rey. His eyes staring daggers at Rey.</p><p>“Stop.” he said through gritted teeth. Anger seething out of him. Gone is the gentleman CEO that’s kind and sweet towards Rey.</p><p>“You hated carrots. You hated crowds. You love spending your time on a swing in the back garden at your house back in Alderaan when you’re about 10,” she adds again.</p><p>“I SAID STOP!” he yelled, and that shut Rey up.</p><p>Now she’s staring at a pair of hazel eyes. But it lacks its warmth. The warmth that she saw when they met at District 9. All there is are freight and anger.</p><p>Their face only a couple of centimeters away from each other, Rey can feel his breath on her face and hers on his. He’s just staring at Rey and Rey at him.</p><p>“What do you want?” he asks Rey. His voice is unnervingly calm. It scares Rey even more. “Money? Is that it?” he spits.<br/>
“I just want to tell you what he wants me to tell you..” Ben took a step away from Rey as if he just got stung. He went quiet for a moment before he decided to speak again.<br/>
“Go on,” he said. Rey swallowed hard, clenching and unclenching her fingers. She’s sweating and nervous. Han Solo The Ghost stood next to her, his face as grim as ever.</p><p>“I’m sorry.. For everything. For missing out..” Han Solo The Ghost started speaking facing Ben. Rey repeats him word for word to Ben, who’s oblivious that his dad is actually a few feet in front of him.</p><p>“Han said, he’s sorry. For everything. For missing out on a lot of important days to you. For missing out on your basketball matches, and didn’t have enough time to play basketball with you.” Ben listens to the girl intently. He then stares at the girl as if she just grows three heads. His mouth gaping like fish out of water. His anger leaves him. Dread filling in. His face white as a sheet.</p><p>“How?” he blinks his eyes several times. Taking another step away from Rey. A piece of Rey is breaking every time he took a step away from her.</p><p>“I can see and talk to ghosts. I’ve been seeing the ghost of your dad since you came to Anavrin last week. He’s.. always around you. Watching you.” his brow furrowed at that.<br/>
“Then tell my dad to fuck off and leave me alone.” he starts walking away from Rey again, when what came out of her mouth next, stops him in his track.</p><p>“Han said his accident was planned.” Ben turns to her again.</p><p>“There are several parties who want him dead. He doesn’t know who plans it, he thinks it’s Snoop, sorry, Snoke, Snoke is one of them. But he doesn’t know who the rest are and how they did it. He can’t go to the afterlife because of this. He needs to know who did it, he needs you to find out who did it.”</p><p>Ben didn’t say anything. Rey decided to speak again.</p><p>“Something was wrong with the falcon. The brake wasn’t working, and he lost control of the steering wheel. But, he knows that the oil was just changed. He said he’s sure of it because..”<br/>
“I was the one who changed the oil.” Ben said, finishing what Rey is about to say. Rey walks closer to Ben. Han Solo The Ghost following next to her.<br/>
“The day before the accident, I borrowed the falcon..” Ben says as he stares at Rey.<br/>
“For a drive-in cinema with..” Han speaks along next to Rey. Rey repeats him again word for word.<br/>
“A girl from your high school, Kaydel” Rey whispers.</p><p>Ben swallows a hard lump in his throat, “A girl from my high school, Kaydel”.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Again, I am very sorry for all the grammar error. Thank you so much for reading this garbage :) please do criticise me xx</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. The Day Rey Visit The Factory</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ben stops his car in front of a shoddy looking apartment. He had offered Rey, insisted on, to take her home. The least he can do for all the hurtful things he said to her earlier at the mall. He clenches the steering wheel. As he turns to look at Rey who’s quiet through the whole drive except for giving him directions.<br/>“I’m sorry for what I said earlier.” he finally says. The girl was fiddling with her fingers. She shakes her head.</p>
<p>“It’s okay. That’s what everyone has said to me anyway.” she said meekly. Ben's heart breaks. He remembers calling Rey insane earlier. He’s at a loss for word now.<br/>“I didn’t.. I’m sorry.”</p>
<p>Rey looks up at him and smiles. The girl has her long tresses in a half ponytail. Her face is clean from makeup yet she still looks prettier than all the girls he dated. And he dated models and actresses. “It’s okay.” She starts gathering her stuff and opens the passenger’s door when Ben pulls at her arm. She stops with one of her legs outside the car.<br/>“Thank you. I’ll keep in touch with you.” that struck Rey that they had exchanged phone numbers at the mall. She just nods and gets out of the car and gently slams the car door shut.</p>
<p>Rey stood idly at the front of her apartment waiting for Ben to drive away, she lean to the car window and gave ben a thumb up. When the car goes out of her sight, she steps into the shoddy apartment that is her place.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>…</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The drive back to Coruscant was quiet. The only sound between Gwen and Hux was the car’s engine. They were too shaken to talk it out. They were listening to Maz talking in her office when one of the machines in the production room suddenly roars to life. Gwen remembered Maz sighed tiredly and offered them to come with her and see to it themselves. Gwen watches as the machine that is supposed to be operating with the help of a person, works by itself. It was a machine to mix up the flavour of the cereal. It turns and turns by itself. Maz had to turn it off herself, and she switched off the machine. Gwen can still feel her goosebumps even after they left the factory.</p>
<p>“We decided to switch off all the machines’s electricity, but most of the wires were connected to the cooler wires, and under all circumstances, we must keep the cooler on to save the ingredients.” Maz explained to them in the office. When they left, Maz had left too. </p>
<p>When Gwen and Hux get into the car, right before she closes her down door, it slams shut all by itself. The heavy steel door of a BMW. Gwen gaped at the door next to her. She turned to check if Hux was seeing it, and he did. His face was white as a sheet.</p>
<p>A few meters from Gwen’s apartment Hux suddenly stops the car. Gwen about to ask Hux what's wrong before he speak.<br/>“I know that car..” he said as he leaned forward on the steering wheel, squinting his eyes at the car a few meters in front of them. Gwen inspects the car in front of her apartment. It is a sleek black Aston Martin DBS Superleggera. The car looks like it doesn’t belong in this area, Gwen thinks.</p>
<p>Hux gasped, “I know that plate number. That’s Ben. What’s he doing here?”</p>
<p>Before Gwen says anything, her roommate Rey, steps out of the car. Gwen’s mouth gaped and so does Hux. The duo watches as Rey leans to the window of the car and gives a thumb up at the person inside. And then the car drove away. The duo is still watching when Rey steps into the apartment.</p>
<p>“Tell me you didn’t see a black Aston Martin.” Hux turns to look at Gwen.<br/>“I just saw a black Aston Martin.”</p>
<p>Hux shook his head. “It could be anything. She’s not his type.” he said as he shrugs his shoulder.<br/>“And I’m willing to bet he’s not her type either.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>…</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ben Solo speeds up the car. He saw the numbers went up from 100km/hr to 110km/hr to 120km/hr and then to 140km/hr. His brain is still trying to process what happened an hour ago at the park outside the mall. He doesn’t want to believe what Rey is telling him earlier. That’s just not possible. His dad is six feet under the ground. But all the things she told him, shook him to the bone. No one knows about them. About his hobby, his distaste in carrot, his love for sitting at the swing at the back of the garden in his house back in Alderaan when he’s 10. Not even Hux knows about that. Hux knows about his hobby in calligraphy and distaste of carrot, but not about the swing.</p>
<p>And to top it all, his date with Kaydel to the drive-in cinema. The very first date with Kaydel. No one knows about it but Hux, dad, and Kaydel herself. Since two of the latter are already six feet under the ground, then Hux is the only possible person who could tell Rey about it. But no one can tell Rey about the oil change. Only him and his dad know about that. And his dad.. Is at the cemetery hill on Alderaan right now.</p>
<p>“Fuck.” he curses.<br/>“FUCK FUCK FUCK”</p>
<p>Snoke. It all comes back to Snoke. He thinks darkly. He’s picturing the face of his parents' friend's face in his head. Alexander Snoke. The senator of Coruscant. he has been the Senator of Coruscant for 10 years. He won the election 2 times, and in a few months from now, he will start his campaign for the election that’s coming up.</p>
<p>17 years ago, Snoke was just a rich businessman and only 10 years ago he started getting involved with politics. He succsessfully ran as the Senator of Coruscant. He knows him to be a friend of his mother who was a senator of Alderaan at the time. He doesn’t know much about the relationship between his dad and Snoke at the time but he knows that they weren’t friends with each other. Han hates talking to Snoke. Ben once watched Snoke visibly glaring daggers at Han, and Han at Snoke, at a christmas party hosted by his mother, Leia Organa-Solo.</p>
<p>Leia.</p>
<p>Ben had left his mother after the death of Kaydel. Right after he discovers that Kaydel snitched to Snoke about him and his mother. It caused Leia to lose her seat as the Senator of Alderaan, to Moden Canady. He misses her. Truly misses her.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“What do we do now sir?” Gwen asks Hux as he stops the car in front of the apartment. Hux looks like he’s in deep thoughts. His lips shut tight, eyes focused on the road outside. Earlier was the first ever paranormal occurrence that has ever happened to her. Now that the factory is clearly haunted, what would they do to save the factory and its workers? The nine workers that signed up were really shaken by what happened to them at the factory, Maz has said so to them. What are they going to do if even more workers resign? The factory in Takodana will undoubtedly fall.</p>
<p>The First Order has a few more factories, yes. But the factory in Takodana is the biggest, most productive factory of the First Order. The second big factory is in Jakku, and then the medium scale factories are in Citadel, Dathomir, and lastly Hapes.</p>
<p>
  <em>What are we going to do now?<br/>What is Ben going to do now?</em>
</p>
<p>“I’ll try to talk to Ben.” Hux finally answers.<br/>“He’s.. sceptic about things like this but, maybe if he comes down to the factory himself, he’ll change his mind. We need to save this factory no matter what.”</p>
<p>Gwen nods. It is the most productive factory after all. The company money for production is mostly spent for the factory in Takodana, therefore they must save it no matter what.</p>
<p>“Thank you for accompanying me today Christie. I.. I would never go in there all by myself. I’ll lose my mind.” Hux turns to look at his junior in the passenger seat.<br/>“You’re welcome sir.” With that Gwen exits the car and enters her apartment. Hux drives away from it, heading to his own place.</p>
<p>Armitage is thinking on how and what to say to Ben. He won’t listen shit. But clearly, the situation in the factory is concerning. Whether or not Ben would make fun of him, Armitage has made up his mind to tell him everything he sees in the factory. Armitage knows Ben is about to visit the factory by himself on Monday, he will see it by his own two eyes later and he has no other choice but to believe Armitage.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>...</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ben enters his penthouse. Thoughts still running a thousand mile an hour. About Han, about what happened 17 years ago, his mother, and then about Snoke and his cronies, about Kaydel. He really can’t run fast and far enough from them. He ran away when he was 22 from Alderaan to Coruscant to start a new life. A new chapter without any of them in it. But they came back to him. All of them.</p>
<p>Ben took a seat at his large sofa in the living room. The room is dimly lit, the curtain is strewn to close half of the large window. The sight of tall buildings, pretty red, yellow, blue and green lights, and the dark sky above catches his attention.</p>
<p>Okay.. I have to finish this once and for all.</p>
<p>His fingers massaged the gap between his eyes until a thought popped out. Armitage.</p>
<p>He immediately took out his phone and dial Armitage’s number. It rings. It didn’t direct him to voicemail this time. The line rings three times before it picks up.</p>
<p>“Hello?”<br/>“Where the fuck have you been?”<br/>“Hello to you too.”<br/>“Where have you been? I was about to ask you about the stupid gossips in Takodana Factory earlier. I have... other shits I want to talk to you too.” Ben thinks about what Rey told him earlier. The line went silent for a moment.</p>
<p>“I went to the factory today.”</p>
<p>“What?” Ben breathes. He went silent to give Armitage his chance to explain.<br/>“I-I went. To the factory. I wanted to see what the workers are talking about Ben and shit.. It’s- It is concerning. The condition in the factory. Even Maz is shaken about it. Maz! I mean, nothing ever shakes the old woman but she was shaking a bit when she told me what had happened at the factory. We have to do something about this Ben.. I.. don’t know what but, we-“ Ben can hear his friend stuttering. Ben knows Armitage just well enough to know that his friend is not the type to stutter. If he did, then anything is indeed concerning. Ben then hears his best friend sighing at the other end of the line.</p>
<p>“If we lose the production in this factory, we will lose bigger profit next month. We still have the factory in Jakku, yes but.. are we really going to lose Takodana?”</p>
<p>“Calm down Armie, we’re not losing anything.” Ben says, calling his best buddy by his nickname.</p>
<p>“Tell me what happened.” He said. This time, it is the CEO that talks to his finance manager.</p>
<p>Ben can hear Armitage take several breaths before he speaks. Armitage tells Ben about the stories of the 9 workers that signed out of the factory this month. The first worker that resigned is a cleaning lady at the factory. Maz had told Armitage that the cleaning lady fell down the stairs at the factory several times in a week. The sixth times that she fell down the stairs, her forehead hit the end of a metal grip of the stairs creating a large wound from the side of her forehead to the center and the lady was bleeding a lot. She ends up with 10 stitches on her forehead. A day after that, she gave Maz a resignation letter.</p>
<p>The second worker who resigned was a week after the cleaning lady resigned. It was the night security guard. He claims to keep seeing a woman in a long red dress in the middle of the night at the factory when he does his routine check around the factory. He had called the woman several times and asked to show her worker id but the woman, without fail, gone the moment he walked up to her. It happens every single night on his shift for two weeks since the start of this month.</p>
<p>The man also claims that he sees the woman in the long red dress in his dream, just staring at him from afar. He can’t picture her face but somehow, the man knows that she’s smiling at him. A day after the cleaning lady resigned, after the night security guard dreamt of the woman in red, he got into a car crash. Him and his wife were hospitalized for a week. After that the night security gave Maz his resignation letter.</p>
<p>The third worker is one that worked at the packaging of the cereal. His job is to get 20 boxes of cereal into one box to be sent out to the distributors. He said something keeps bothering him whenever he works. Lights in the packaging room would sometimes switch off all by itself, or that sometimes the racks in the room would shake as if there’s an earthquake. He also heard whispers, and a woman crying somewhere near the packaging room.</p>
<p>One day, when he was doing the packaging, he said he heard someone calling his name from the door of the room, when he turned, he saw a woman in a long red dress. Without knowing, he moves his fingers close to the cutting blade that he’s using for the packaging and he ends up cutting his own middle finger by a quarter. Two days later, he gave Maz a resignation letter.</p>
<p>The fourth and the fifth of the workers who signed out was cleaning workers just like the first one. The fourth claimed to be strangled by unseen force in the changing room and the fifth claimed to see the woman in the long red dress while cleaning the toilet and the day after that, him and his whole family fell sick.</p>
<p>The sixth and seventh claimed that the woman in the red dress follows them around the factory while they’re working. They noticed that the woman would hide behind racks, or doors, half of her body showing. They sometimes would hear laughter of a woman, someone crying, or sometimes even calling to them.</p>
<p>“Alright I’ll stop you right there.” This time it is Ben’s turn to take several long breaths. He had put Armitage on speaker while he walked around his kitchen reaching for a drink for the sudden dryness in his throat. Now Ben is sitting on one of the tall chairs surrounding a white marble island.</p>
<p>“The eighth worker resigned for the same reason with the fifth; his whole family and him suddenly fell sick after he saw that.. that woman.” Armitage still continuing what Maz told him four hours ago.</p>
<p>“We have to do something Ben or we will receive more resignation letters. I told you they are real. Ghosts. Whether you want to believe it or not. They’re real. And this is really happening to us Ben. What happens at the factory in Takodana is real. Even if you don’t believe it, what if there’s rumors going around about the factory? We will need PR to fix our image to the public.”</p>
<p>
  <em>What am I going to do now? What would mother do in a situation like this? What would dad do? dad.. </em>
</p>
<p>“What did you just say?”</p>
<p>“Are you even listening to me?” Armitage sighed tiredly into the line.<br/>“I did. What did you say about ghosts again?”<br/>“... What? That they’re real? They are real Ben for fuck’s sake please believe me! You’ll see how a mess everything is on Monday. You’ll see it yourself.”</p>
<p>An idea just pops into Ben’s head. It might be crazy but it's worth a shot.</p>
<p>“Thanks Hux. Have a great Saturday night.” With that he ends his call with Armitage and starts typing for Rey’s number. Armitage groans on the other end of the line.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>...</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Ben Solo</strong>:<br/>I’ll pick you up tomorrow at 9am.</p>
<p>Rey was just finished putting on her pajamas for the night when the text came in. She gaped at it. She quickly texts back.</p>
<p>
  <em>I have a 1pm shift tomorrow...</em>
</p>
<p><strong>Ben Solo</strong>:<br/>I don’t care. I’ll talk to your manager. Give me his number.</p>
<p>Rey sits down on her bed re-reading the text that came seconds right after she sent her reply. Then another text came.</p>
<p><strong>Ben Solo</strong>:<br/>If you’re not lying to me about what you said to me today, you’ll prove it to me.</p>
<p>“What?..” her fingers move quickly on her cracked iPhone screen.</p>
<p>
  <em>Prove to you how?..</em>
</p>
<p>Isn’t today enough to prove to him that she can talk and see ghosts? She told him his secrets that only him and Han knows.</p>
<p><strong>Ben Solo</strong>:<br/>Tomorrow you’ll see.</p>
<p><strong>Ben Solo</strong>:<br/>Give me your manager’s number.</p>
<p>After two minutes of mulling things over, Rey decided to not give Ben Poe’s number. He is her manager therefore she should be the one telling Poe about not being able to come to the supermarket tomorrow. She texted Poe, saying she has emergency business she needs to take care of. She has worked in the supermarket for a year, and this is the only time in 6 month that Rey has said to her manager about being unable to come to her shift. The first one she had been sick after standing under the rain to help a ghost out.</p>
<p><strong>Poe</strong>:<br/>Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Poe</strong><br/>Make sure you have someone to cover you, you know how Saturday will be.</p>
<p>Rey immediately texts Pamela, one of the workers at Anavrin, to ask her to cover her place tomorrow, Rey had covered for her a month ago. Pamela quickly texts back with one word:</p>
<p>
  <em>Alrite</em>
</p>
<p>Rey texts Ben back right after she received Pamela’s text.</p>
<p>
  <em>I already talked to my manager, you don’t have to talk to him.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Where are we going tomorrow? </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ben text back ten minutes later just when Rey’s eyes are about to close for the night.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Ben Solo</strong>:<br/>One of the factories of my company in Takodana.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>...</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It is 11pm on a Saturday night. Poe Dameron is currently watching a basketball match between Crimson Dawn and The Mandalorian on his tv when his phone pinged alerting there’s a new email. While on commercial break, Poe checks the email out. His brows furrowed looking at the mail. It is said to be from First Order ltd. A cereal company. Anavrin, is indeed one of its distributors but Poe’s brows furrow even deeper when he read <em> ‘... Rey Johnson will be unable to come to the 1pm shift on Saturday, because there will be an important meeting with the CEO of the First Order ltd. We are sorry to tell you that we are unable to tell you the matter of the meeting....’ </em> and in the end, he reads <em>‘... Secretary of the First Order ltd., Dopheld Mitaka.' </em></p>
<p>“Rey.. what did you get yourself into?” Whispers Poe into the air of his living room. Poe immediately texts Rey;</p>
<p>
  <em>Rey, is everything okay with First Order? Why are you tangled up with them?</em>
</p>
<p>When the commercial break is over, Poe quickly puts down his phone and his eyes and mind back to focus on the game on the tv.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>...</p>
<p> </p>
<p>True to his word, Rey can see Ben’s car parked near the sidewalk of her apartment at 9am sharp. Gwen thankfully hasn’t come out of her room yet when Rey walked out of her bedroom to head out. She’s afraid her roommate will ask her even more questions. Last night a few minutes after she got into the apartment, Gwen walked in. She said she saw her getting out of her boss’ car. Gwen had asked her what she was doing with Ben Solo. Rey simply answered that they met at the mall and went for a tea and scones and Ben offered to take her some since it’s already late. That is partly, the truth. Gwen only hummed at that. Rey mentally curses herself. She left her bicycle at the mall.</p>
<p>Rey walked up to the car and knocked at the passenger window. The window rolls down, showing Ben wearing his black sunglasses.<br/>“Get in Miss Johnson.” He said.</p>
<p>Rey quickly opened the car and sat her butt down on the car seat. Rey can see that today he’s wearing a dark blue henley and a black jeans. Her heart has been beating wild and her head is filled with the thought of Ben Solo since he texted her last night. Another hour in a car with Ben Solo? Bless her. Having him next to Rey feels like a blessing directly from god. She feels so safe and warm, and protected somehow. It feels like she doesn’t have to worry about anything. Her focus is solely on him.</p>
<p>The car smells good. That she realizes, just like him. On the dashboard, Rey can see there’s a citrus car freshener. It smells so good it makes her conscious with how she smells. Does she smell good? Or bad? Rey made sure to wear deodorant and body spray this morning. She also shampooed her hair just to make sure her hair smells good and looks decent to him. Today she wears her hair in a half ponytail and she’s wearing a white cotton blouse, with light blue ripped jeans, and a not-so-white-anymore sneaker.</p>
<p>“I brought doughnuts in case you’re hungry. It’ll take about 3 hours to drive to the factory. Two and a half if I go over 120.” Ben said as he took out a brown paper bag from the back. There’s a small space in the back. It doesn’t look like it’s for a second passenger, more like a little space for baggage. Or other stuff.<br/>“Thank you.. that’s.. really thoughtful.” Rey said meekly. Ben shoved the brown paper bag to Rey and left it on her lap. He turns the engine on and the car starts driving away from her apartment.</p>
<p><em>This kinda feels like a date</em>, the girl thought innocently. Little did she know what they would be doing later..</p>
<p>Rey stole quick glances at Ben while he’s driving. The brown paper bag filled with doughnuts still sitting on her lap. Rey can feel the warmness of the doughnuts seeping from the paper bag.<br/>“Is.. is my dad here?” Ben asks her after twenty minutes of silence in the car.<br/>“No.. he once said to me that sometimes he visits your mother.” Rey answered.<br/>Ben sighed, “Right.. of course he is.”<br/>“That reminds me.. he said he wants to talk to your mother too..” Rey adds. Ben turns his head to look at her.</p>
<p>“Right.. we can think about that later.” He added, “Today I need you to do something for me..” Ben curiously glances at Rey, to see her reaction, whether she mind, shocked, or not. But the girl just stares at him from her seat.</p>
<p>Ben clears his throat.<br/>“There are several reports about paranormal activities at the factory and I just thought that maybe, if you don’t mind, you’d clear things up there?” He continues. His tone at the end ends like a question, to see her reaction to it. He can hear her humming.</p>
<p>“What paranormal activities?”</p>
<p>“Oh nothing big, some worker just got hurt from this ‘thing’ they claimed to see.” He said casually. When he glanced at her, her face went pale.</p>
<p>“What?...”<br/>Ben shrug casually, “one of the workers fell down the stairs and got stitches on her forehead, some claimed to be strangled by invisible force, and then there's this guy who saw this.. thing, and then he and his whole family fell sick a day after, another got into an accident after he sees this thing.”</p>
<p>“Thing?..”<br/>“They all said they saw a woman in a red dress. But they could be lying. You never know. The work in my factory could be too much for them, so they lied in their resignation letter. It could happen right? So, I need you to see it, prove yourself to me, if there’s anything in the factory.”</p>
<p>Rey’s eyes widened and her heart rates went up. “B-but what-what if th-there is?.. what if there is something in it?” She panics and her voice shakes. Ben quickly shot out his right arm and took hold of Rey’s knees.<br/>“Hey, I’ll be there with you, I want to see everything too, don’t worry I won’t let anything hurt you, okay?” He said. His eyes are still on the road. Rey swallowed a big lump in her throat. Ben is right. She can touch him whenever she’s scared and the ghost will disappear. His palm feels so warm on her knee.. GOD REY. FOCUS.</p>
<p>“B-but what do we do if something is there?..” she asks again.<br/>Ben shrugs casually again, “you can talk to them. Tell them to go away.”</p>
<p>Her ears are ringing now. She feels like a pig on her way to be slaughtered. There’s no way a ghost as violent as that will want to talk and listen. No. Way. So far in her life, Rey has only dealt with violent ghosts a few times. Not enough to assume that she’s good at handling it. They were all very angry, and hard to talk to.  Some of them can be very powerful; they have the power to enter Rey's body and possess her. That’s what Rey has to be very careful about. Once they possess her, they can do whatever they want with Rey’s body. Whatever. For example; killing it.</p>
<p>Rey has been possessed twice in her life. The first one was with the spirit of an angry little girl. She finally went away when Rose bought a doll for her. And the second one was because she’s drunk. She took mental notes not to ever get drunk again. When Rey gets drunk and loses control of her body, it will be easier for spirits or ghosts to enter her body. There can be several ghosts or spirits taking turns entering her body. It was very tiring for her. Rey woke up in the morning feeling as if she just ran a marathon around Coruscant.</p>
<p>“It’s easy right?”</p>
<p>Her eyes, that has been focusing on him most of the time, blinks. She takes in the sight of him; his strong nose, and brow bone, his eyelashes, his black and fluffy hair, his strong arm on the steering wheel, the other still resting on her knee.. At the moment, she feels like she can take on anything. She won’t be alone. Ben is with her. Her sun is with her.</p>
<p>Rey swallowed another lump and nodded. Ben, who saw her nodding, smiles brightly at her.<br/>“I’ll try..” the girl said meekly.</p>
<p>“Atta girl!”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Pray For Rey.. In the next chapter we will have Rey confronting the ghost &gt;:)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. The Day Rey Earn His Trust</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The Haunting of Bly Manor is now on Netflix, who's watching?! I'm super excited for that series..<br/><strong> Content Warning: </strong> there will be a brief rape scene (not Rey) if you want to skip it, stop reading when you see these sign "~~~~~"<br/>I'm not Stephen King and this is my first time writing a ghostly scene. I tried writing it as intense as I can.. I hope you enjoy it x</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The factory is still about 20km away. Ben ends up punching the gas of the car, going about 120km/hr to save time. Last night he had called Maz and informed her that he’ll be at the factory on Saturday afternoon. Ben heard an annoyed tone from Maz in the phone call last night, but she didn’t say anything to him. She only said that she’ll be there to guide him.</p><p>A ringtone suddenly fills the air. It wasn’t Ben’s so that should be Rey’s.<br/>
“Hello?” The ringtone stops swapped with Rey’s delicate voice.</p><p>“Oh.. right..” Ben suddenly feels a pair of eyes at him. He turns, catching Rey glaring at him. He raises an eyebrow at her.</p><p>“Um.. no, it’s not trouble.. I promise I’m not in trouble with them, Poe.” She said as she glanced down at her bag that she put next to her legs.</p><p>“Yeah I’m sure, everything’s good. Okay, okay, I will. Thanks for calling Poe.” She said again. Rey hung up the call and put her phone back into her bag.</p><p>“Who was that?” Ben asked curiously. He had heard the name ‘Poe’.</p><p>“My manager.. he said he received an email from the First Order secretary.. he wanted to make sure I’m not in trouble.”<br/>
“Why would you do that?” Rey asks Ben back. Her eyes glaring at Ben in the driver seat. Ben catches her glare.<br/>
“Uh.. I just thought.. that it’ll help you from an earful from your manager you’ll probably get for not coming to your shift.”</p><p>“Please don’t do that. Ever again. I don’t want to lie to my manager and I can’t.. exactly tell him Im.. ‘ghost seeing’ with you.” Ben suddenly laughed. Rey shot him a look from the passenger seat, but that look quickly faded as she saw him throwing his head back, the end of his eyes crinkling, mouth gaping to let out a laughter that filled her ears.</p><p>“Ghost seeing!” He laughed again.</p><p>Rey’s eyes capturing the moment. Save it, keep it for times when she needs it most. All of this feels so unreal, having Ben next to her just an arm away. Having him laughing from what she said. Rey didn’t think she could be funny, but there he is, laughing from what she said. Rey didn’t want the moment to end, didn’t want to stop hearing his laughter.</p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>That joy was short lived. The moment the car drives close to the factory Rey can feel her hair on her neck and shoulder tingling. A dark cloud is hanging above the factory that’s located on top of the hill, creating an unapproachable look to it. Her nerves shot up three times.</p><p>They drove past the security checkpoint at the front. Rey notices that they’re still a few hundred meters away to reach the factory. So far she doesn’t see anything scary.. that’s good. It’s probably just a ghost of a worker that’s angry, since it seems to be attacking workers. She’s a worker herself, she can deal with this. She’s pretty sure she can talk her down. If there really is a ghost that is.. what Ben said that they could be lying is possible.</p><p>The car finally came to a stop near the entrance of the factory building. An old Chevrolet already parked near it.<br/>
“Here we are..” Ben said after he put the gear into Park mode. He turns to take a good look at Rey. She’s pretty sure her face is pale right now, she suddenly feels dread filling in since they came close to the factory building, and Ben notices.</p><p>“Hey it’s alright, I’ll be here with you..” he says as he took a hold of Rey’s knee again. She suddenly realise something..</p><p>“Please don’t touch me later.” She said to him. Ben quickly pulls back his hand as if Rey just electrocuted him.</p><p>“Im.. sorry, if that makes you uncomfortable.” His eyes widened. What the hell was he thinking casually touching her like that? He realises that’s not okay considering he just met Rey a few days ago. He is just so casual with it that he doesn’t think of anything about it.</p><p>“N-no! It’s just.. I.. I actually noticed that whenever you.. touch me, ghosts will disappear.” Rey shyly looks down and fiddles with her fingers. Her heart beating loud in her ears.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>She’s nodding her head while she explains the odd thing to Ben, “yes.. the first time that I bumped into you, I touched you, there was a ghost chasing after me but then she’s gone.. and then at the mall, another ghost was chasing after me, but then I touched you.. and.. it disappears, again.”</p><p>Ben stares at the girl. Not believing anything she says..</p><p>“Uh.. okay..” <em> what should I say about it?</em></p><p>“So.. if you want to know if there’s anything inside, don’t touch me, because then I won’t be able to see them.” She explains again. There are a hundred things he wants to say to her but his brain is still half processing what she just told him. <em> Did she really just say that I can make ghosts go away? How? What? </em></p><p>When Rey wasn’t looking, he casually shrugs. “Alrighty then, let's kick this son of a bitch’s ass away from my factory.” He cheerily opens the car door and then slams it shut and walks towards the entrance of the factory. Rey quickly follows behind him.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p><em> Blood.</em> She smells blood.<br/>
<em>This is odd.</em> The room is squeaky clean with no traces of dried blood or fresh blood. Rey can feel bile coming up in her throat, threatening to come out. She immediately closes her mouth and nose with her palm.</p><p>
  <em>What is this..</em>
</p><p>Her whole body is freezing. The muscle in her legs and shoulder feels like it’s being pulled taut. It feels like there’s a cow piggybacking on her shoulder. Her whole body feels so heavy.</p><p>“Maz.” Greets Ben to the woman that’s seating behind a tall wooden table in front of them. The woman walked around the table to reach them.<br/>
“What on earth are you going to do in the factory on a Saturday Ben?” The woman said to Ben with both her hands on her hips, as if ready to scold the shit out of Ben. Rey notices that the woman is quite small, and old, but her presence demands your full attention. Ben shrugs his shoulder.</p><p>“Just want to see how things are..”</p><p>“Simon said you’ll visit on Monday, not Saturday.” She spits.</p><p>“Well there has been a change in the plan woman.” He replied. Maz eyeing Rey curiously. She gestures to Rey with her chin and looks up at Ben. “Who’s the girl?”</p><p>“A friend of mine. She’ll be the judge of the ‘paranormal activities’ that was claimed by the several workers that resigned.” Maz squints both of her eyes at that.</p><p>“What?” Ben and Maz casually continue to chat, not noticing the smell of the blood that’s threatening Rey to throw up right there in the entrance of the factory. Rey also feels something calling to her beyond the door to her left. She suddenly feels anger and hurt, filling her in. She knows that they’re not hers. They’re someone else’s.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>It’s an angry spirit.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>“Rey?” Rey’s eyes that have been focusing on the door to her left, focuses on the face of Ben Solo in front of her.</p><p>“This is Maz, chief of the factory. She’ll be showing us around.” The woman, Maz, nods at Rey and smiles at her. Rey realises she has been putting her hand to close her nose and mouth, shyly pull her hand down, knowing it’s not polite to do so in front of someone you just met. She smiles shyly at Maz.</p><p>“D-do you s-smell that?” She asks no one in particular.</p><p>“Smell what?” Ben sniffs the air. Maz cranes her neck, also sniffing.</p><p>“That’s probably the smell of the cleaner we used to clean the floor, lady. I like to keep things clean here.” She casually said.</p><p>
  <em>Definitely not that.</em>
</p><p>Another bile rising in her throat. She shyly looked down to her shoes, “never mind.”</p><p>Maz then said that they will start with the production room since most of the ‘activities’ happens there. Ben follows Maz behind her a few steps, and Rey is walking behind Ben. When she walks past the door, she notice that there’s another smells besides blood; rotten meat and a fresh soil. <em>Why fresh soil?</em> Rey thinks.</p><p>The trio walk into the production room, they keep walking until Maz stops at the center of the room. They’re surrounded by tall tubes, machines, and wires for the cereal production.<br/>
“It’s.. freezing here Maz.” Ben says as he looks around the room.<br/>
“Sorry, I forgot to tell you to bring a jacket. The heater technicians said nothing is wrong with it. So the workers and I decided to wear jacket to work. We don’t want to freeze our fingers out.” Ben then turns to Rey. Catching the girl looking around the building, and her face as pale as a dead person’s.</p><p>“Well?” He says at Rey.</p><p>“There’s something. I'm not sure.. I think I need to look around..” she said timidly.<br/>
“I’ll show you around.” Right after Maz said that, the already chilly room turns even chillier and colder. The trio could feel their hair on their whole body standing up. Even Ben and Maz now could feel something heavy weighing on their neck.</p><p> </p><p>Rey gasped aloud.</p><p> </p><p>The trio stood creating a circle with Ben and Maz standing in front of Rey, they turned to look at her. Behind Ben and Maz there are three giant silver steel tubes that are about ten feet high and between the two tubes, stood a woman in a long red dress. She’s tall, so tall, even taller than Gwen and Ben. She’s about seven feet tall. Rey can see blood dripping from her dress, her face is so white, it looks like a white paint just kind of splashed into her face. Her hair is long, it came down to her hips, it’s raven black, and it’s messy. So messy, it tangles and it sticks out of direction.</p><p>“What’s wrong?” Ben asks her. Rey wants to tell them what she’s seeing, but couldn’t. Her throat lost its voice, it feels like something strangles her neck. She’s also scared that if she moves even just a little bit, the woman in front of her will move too, and attack her, or Ben, or Maz. Therefore, she stood as still as a mannequin, not even daring to breathe.</p><p>The woman suddenly opens up her mouth.</p><p> </p><p>Her mouth that’s painted in blood red opens and inside her mouth Rey sees her yellowing sharp little teeth.</p><p> </p><p>Rey blinks several times. She can’t move, she can’t talk.</p><p> </p><p>“Are you okay?” Ben asks Rey again.</p><p>The woman in red suddenly shot up her hand, and then Rey suddenly feel her body levitate in the air. Both of her eyes widened while still focusing her eyes on the woman between the silver tubes.</p><p>“Rey?” Ben starts to panic. Ben and Maz’s eyes widened when they realise that Rey is getting taller and taller. When they look down to her feet, they can see that Rey is levitating a few inches above the ground.</p><p>Both of Rey’s hands shot up to her throat, it feels like there’s a hand, choking her.<br/>
“Stop..” she whispers.</p><p>The woman smiles even bigger at her, baring her sharp, yellow teeth. Her grey eyes glowing at the sight of Rey levitating.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Ben watches with his own two eyes that Rey levitates above the ground. She’s as tall as he is now, then, he panics. He doesn't know just what exactly he’s dealing with. When Rey's body jerks to the back, as if there’s a force pulling her away from him and Maz, Ben’s body moves on its own, chasing Rey.</p><p>“REY!!”</p><p>“MISS!!!” yell Maz, she also runs after Rey.</p><p>Ben is running after Rey and he sees that it looks like someone, something is pulling at Rey’s torso. Her feet are off the ground, it’s dangling in the air, with both of her hands above her sneakers. The girl screams loud, her voice filling in the empty air of the production room.</p><p><em> What the hell was I thinking? I don’t even know what we’re dealing with and I drag her into this </em>  Ben thinks furiously at himself for thinking such stupid idea with uncalculated risks, as he keeps running after Rey who’s still moving, flying, being dragged in the air between racks and tubes. Ben’s hand shot up to take a hold of her ankle. The moment Ben got a hold of her ankle, Rey fell to the ground.</p><p>Ben quickly gathers the trembling girl in his arms, she’s crying and sobbing in his henley and Ben is shushing her quietly.<br/>
“You’re okay, you’re okay, I’m sorry I didn’t know what I was thinking, I’m so sorry!”</p><p>Maz came up behind him, “what in gods name was that all about?” She said, out of breath.</p><p>“Ben, t-tthe woman in tt-the rr-red dress is real, sh-she’s here, in the pp-production rr-roomm..” Rey hides in Ben’s neck while she tells him what she saw a moment ago. Ben’s arms circling her whole body that’s still shaking.<br/>
“She’s so angry I don’t know why or what makes her so angry.. and s-she’s so scary.. I don’t think we can talk to her” she cries.</p><p>Ben pulled her from the slope of his neck, “remember what we agreed on in the car? If something is in here then you will talk her out of the factory”</p><p>“But I’m scared!” Cries Rey again.</p><p>“Rey, there are people hurting because of this thing.. we have to help them..” <em>Help me.</em></p><p>Two teary eyes stare into two piercing eyes. Rey knows that Ben is right. There are people hurting because of this woman, she need to stop the woman in red.</p><p>“I’m here aren’t I?” He says again. Rey nods. Maz watching the exchange between the two curiously.</p><p>Ben and Maz slowly help Rey to stand on her feet. The lights in the production room suddenly went off, leaving the trio in the dark. Small lights came out, creeping out of the windows on the wall of the factory.</p><p>“Find out what she wants and tell her to get out of here.”</p><p>Rey cringed. How is she going to talk to that woman when she’s so scary and Rey doesn’t have any ounce of bravery left in her, but she knows she has to help the workers in here. She knows she has to do this.</p><p>As soon as Ben pulls his hands away from Rey, Rey can immediately sense where the woman is. She follows the pulling feeling in her gut, leading her to two tall racks in the production room.</p><p>The pulling in Rey's gut lead her to standing between two tall racks filled with cereal boxes, and the woman in the red dress is a few feet away from her. Rey has to crane her neck to look at her. She looks away, to the ceiling, or to the racks next to the woman, never focusing her eyes on the woman. Her grievous face scares Rey to death.</p><p>“I-I just want to talk..” said Rey when the woman turns to look at her. Her piercing grey eyes are like two pitchforks aiming at Rey.</p><p>“Let me help you..” Rey says weakly. Even though the woman is very tall, Rey didn’t worry she can’t hear what she’s saying, Rey knows the woman can listen to her.</p><p>“You’re a weird one.” The woman suddenly speaks. Her voice is cracking at the end.</p><p>“I-I know.. I can see and talk to.. others like you.” Rey replies. She nods in agreement to the woman in red. The woman tilts her neck.</p><p>“Why are you here?” She whispers.</p><p>“I want to help you, I really do. D-do you notice that you’ve been hurting people who work h-here..?”</p><p>The woman stays quiet.</p><p>“That’s not nice y-you kk-know.. that’s not a right thing t-to do,”</p><p>“HURTING ME IS NOT THE RIGHT THING TO DO EITHER BUT HE DID IT ANYWAY!!” The woman suddenly screams. Rey jerked back into the racks, causing several cereal boxes to fall down. Ben and Maz stood still a few meters away from her, they cannot see what Rey can see. What they’re seeing is Rey talking to thin air. Rey bravely walks closer to the woman in red.</p><p>“Trust me. Please. I can feel you’re hurting.. let me help.” She says to the woman in red. Tears fall down Rey’s face without her knowing it. She holds out her hand to reach out to the woman. The woman looked at Rey’s stretched out hand skeptically.<br/>
“I’m not gonna hurt you, you were the one who attacked me. I promise I just want to help.” She says again, desperately wanting the ghost to trust her.</p><p>Rey can see doubt written on the woman’s face when she crouches down and slowly, very slowly holds out her hand too towards Rey. When the tip of their fingers touches, Rey suddenly feels like she’s being sucked into a gigantic vacuum cleaner, but this vacuum cleaner is filled with someone else’s memories. They’re the memories of the woman in red.</p><p> </p><p>~~~~~</p><p>The woman in red was out with a man, a handsome man. They went on a carnival date, eating popcorn and toffee apple. Rey can smell the sweetness of the toffee apple, the smell of the delicious butter on the popcorn, and the chilly wind in her hair. There are other couples around, also kids with their parents around Rey.</p><p>The woman and the man stopped at a water gun stall and played on it, then they were watching a puppet show at the carnival with little kids sitting around them. Wherever they go, both of Rey’s legs move on their own, following the couple.</p><p>The man suddenly takes her out on a car ride. It was a long drive, Rey can tell from how she slept and slept inside the car. After hours, the car finally came to a stop. It was dark, and Rey can’t see anything but the moon that shines brightly on the night sky above the man’s car.</p><p>“Where are we?” The woman asks the man.</p><p>“My secret place.”</p><p>“Oh? What are gonna do?” the woman chuckles.</p><p>Rey can tell the woman loves him so from how she looks at him, how she touches him, and how she pays him her full, undivided attention every time he talks, and how she teases him from time to time.</p><p>The man only chuckled and pulled on the woman’s arms. They went deeper into the dark of the forest, Rey follows the couple a few steps behind, her heart pounding in her ears. She can see nothing but trees on her left and right.</p><p>The woman squeals and giggles, “where are we going Julio?”</p><p>“You’ll see.”</p><p>And then it all came down really quick, like a flash before Rey’s eyes. The man pulled on the woman’s dress, tearing it apart, which Rey notices now that its velvet and the colour of deep red. Rey can hear the ripping of the seams very clearly in the very quiet night. He pushed the woman to the ground beneath forcefully earning a yelped from the woman.</p><p>“J-Julio?”</p><p>“Shut up and open your legs for me.”</p><p>“n-No, pl-please, Julio, wait…”</p><p>The man ignores her.</p><p>“Julio! Julio I don’t want this! I told you!!”</p><p>The woman struggles to pull her body up and the man snatches her legs and pulls her back to him. The woman yelps again, and then she screams, “HELP!! PLEASE HELP!!! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME! PLEASE!!” her cries went unanswered in the dark forest.</p><p>The man laughed at the woman that’s underneath him now. Rey can’t see clearly in the dark, but she knows what's going on. There’s a sound of a belt unbuckled and a zipper opened. The woman screams and slaps the man.</p><p>"STOP!"<br/>
“What the fuck?!” the man spits.</p><p>“Get the fuck off of me you sick pervert! I said I will only went out for dates not fucking you you stupid fuck!” the woman yelps again, Rey can see that the man now has his strong hand choking the woman’s small neck. The woman whimpers painfully.</p><p>“Did you just slapped me you stupid bitch!” The man then uses his other hand to slap the woman’s face. He slapped her so hard, blood drips from her lips. The woman then screams really loud, as loud as she can with his hand around her throat. Rey used both her hands to cover her ears. Rey cannot bear what’s gonna come next.</p><p>The sound of cicadas and the wind blowing on the trees around them are mixed with the woman’s screams and the man’s grunts. The sound of wet slapping again and again filling Rey’s ears. She feels sick. The woman sobs and screams but the man ignores her. Her legs kicking in the air trying to get the man off of her. The man would occasionally slap her and then he would push her face to the soil beneath them to silence her whimpers and screams.</p><p>After he’s done, the man suffocates the woman with her own now-tattered red velvet dress. Rey wanted to look away when he raped the woman, but she couldn’t. It feels like the woman wanted Rey to see and to feel what she went through right before she died. Tears drip down Rey’s face.</p><p>“I’m so sorry..” Rey whispers into the dark. The man pulls on his pants and his belt. He stood up and stared at the woman that lay on the ground briefly then he spits next to her body.</p><p>“Stubborn bitch.”</p><p>With that the man walks away, leaving the lifeless body laying naked on the ground with her velvet red dress pressed to her face.</p><p> </p><p>~~~~~</p><p> </p><p>When Rey opens her eyes, she’s on the ground, her head is resting on Ben’s thigh.<br/>
“Rey, you scared the shit out of me.” Ben helps her up, Maz kneeling next to her.</p><p>“What happened?” Rey asks.</p><p>“You fainted, miss.” Says Maz.</p><p>Rey got up, and she immediately saw the woman in the red dress. She’s standing tall a few feet away from her, looking at Rey with tearful eyes. Her lips shut tight as if she just tasted something bitter.</p><p>“Men are trash. They deserve to suffer.”</p><p>“I’m so sorry..” Rey says again. She doesn't know if apologizing about it will make her feel better or if it will solve the problem, but she really does feel sorry for what has happened to the woman.</p><p>“Leave this factory and never come back.” the woman in red says to Rey, “tell your man to leave this factory forever.” she adds.</p><p>“I can’t leave this factory, I can’t leave you alone now that I know how much you’re hurting..” Rey says as she walks closer to the woman.</p><p>A loud noise suddenly erupted in the production room. It took Rey a second to realise that’s the sound of all the windows in the production room breaking. Rey was kneeling and Ben and Maz behind her also kneels with an arm shot up to protect their head.</p><p>“LEAVE ME ALONE!” the woman screams. A gust of wind blows on Rey. Rey holds her ground.</p><p>“Tell me what you want me to do! Please! I saw what happened now tell me what you want to do! Let me help you, Veronica.”</p><p>That’s her name. Rey is sure that the man in the car had called the woman Veronica when they were in his car.</p><p>“That’s your name is it not?.. Veronica Jennings.. Don’t you miss your family? Don’t you want to visit them?” Rey looks up at the woman. Her expression is now serene. She’s looking past Rey, with her grey eyes gleaming.</p><p>“If you do, you need to let go of your grudge, so you can be free, free of your own grudge. Aren’t you tired of holding on to your grudge?”</p><p>The woman went silent. Rey prepares herself for whatever gonna happen next, but instead of throwing a tantrum, the woman’s body suddenly gets smaller and smaller. Her body keeps shrinking until she’s about Rey’s height. The woman nods. Tears falling out of her eyes. She looks down at the ground, Rey can feel her shame and sadness. Her black hair turns into a beautiful strawberry blonde. Rey bravely reaches for her shoulder and rests her palm there.</p><p>“Please find my body.” the woman, Veronica, look at Rey with her eyes now no longer filled with burning hatred.</p><p>“It’s not far from here. He's the 9th worker that resigned. Please find my body. I want a proper burial.. and find my family too.”</p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Eowyn Mann was just getting into the car with Kilo Jun, his partner, when they received a call from the Police Center in Takodana about a report from a woman near the First Order factory about 15 kilometers away from the nearest police station. The duo, Mann and Jun, were going around the neighbourhood to look for clues about a reported missing lady, Veronica Jennings almost a month ago. The woman who called, Maz Kanata, said that they found a body of a woman about 2 kilometers from the factory.</p><p>Eowyn and Kilo arrived first on the reported location, two kilometers away from the security checkpoint of First Order’s factory. Eowyn parked the police car behind a black Aston Martin. The two police officers step out of the car and see two ladies, one looks like a senior citizen and the other looks like a sick teen girl, and a man that looks to be in his mid-30s.</p><p>“Afternoon, I’m officer Mann, this is officer Jun, which one of you is Maz Kanata? We received a report from her about 13 minutes ago.”</p><p>The group of people stood on the side of the road. What lays behind the trio is a field of greenery. Thick with trees, and wild grass grew on the ground beneath.</p><p>The old woman steps forward, “that would be me, officer.”</p><p>...</p><p>True to what Rey said to Ben and Maz, the trio found the body of the woman in red two kilometers away from the gate of the factory. Rey had led Ben and Maz into the thick forest to where the body of the woman in red is. The trio had to walk for a few meters before a pungent odour in the air strikes the group. The smells of rotting meat filled their noses. Bile rising in the trio’s throat, they stopped walking and covered their noses tightly with their hands. Ben felt his head spinning when he clearly saw a body laying on the ground a few meters in front of him. The body looks as stiff as a mannequin, laying on the ground unmoving with flies flying all over it. He also sees a red cloth near the body.</p><p>Not wanting to stay any longer, the trio quickly walked back to where Ben and Maz parked their car on the side of the road. Ben had instructed Maz to call the Police, and to tell them that she’s just doing a hike around the outer area of the factory. The police officers who came to the location had given them skeptical looks but when Maz guided the officers to the body, with Ben and Rey waiting on the side of the road, the officers told them that they have been looking around for the woman since a report was filed four weeks ago.</p><p>The woman is Veronica Jennings. Her family was the one who reported her disappearance to the police. It is said that none of the family members saw her on the day she disappeared.</p><p>“The man you’re looking for is Julio Crain. He used to work at the factory but he mysteriously resigned a week ago.” says Maz nonchalantly to the officers.<br/>
“Thank you for the information ma’am. We’ll check on the guy.”</p><p>A few minutes later, ambulances and even more police officers arrived at the scene. Maz is the key informant on this. Rey had told the old woman everything she needed to know about the story of Veronica and Julio. Maz mixes up the story of how she knows about the woman and Julio. Rey stood idly next to Ben’s car, waiting for him while he’s talking to the chief officer of the Takodana Police.</p><p>“Thank you for your cooperation Sir, we really appreciate it.” said the chief while he shook Ben’s hand.<br/>
Ben nods at the chief, “you’re welcome Chief. Glad I could be a little help to the case.”</p><p>“You’re a big help mister solo, The reported case of the missing girl has been going around for almost a month with no clue where or when she was last seen by the people because of the big celebration in Takodana a few weeks ago, it makes the investigation harder. No one saw her that day and she’s known to be a very closed up individual and secretive with her life.”</p><p>As if right on cue, the medics came out of the trees carrying a big yellow plastic bag. Big enough to fit a body in it. Rey was looking around her surrounding, at the people that went around her going about their assigned job when Veronica suddenly shows up next to her. She‘s no longer tall and scary and intimidating, but as small as Rey and she looks as fragile as fragile as Rey.</p><p>“Thank you,” the woman whispers softly to Rey.</p><p>“You’re welcome.” Rey whispers back and smiles at the ghost next to her shyly.</p><p>“So, is he your guy?”</p><p>“Who?..”</p><p>The ghost turns her head to look at Ben that’s a few feet away and is still talking to the police chief. Rey follows where her sight lands. The ghost turns back to Rey.</p><p>“Him.” she said, gesturing towards Ben with her head.</p><p>Rey’s eyes widen and she immediately shakes her head, “o-oh nn-no, he’s a.. He’s.. he’s a friend of mine.”</p><p>The ghost nodded at Rey solemnly.</p><p>“.. Be careful. The prettiest one can be a devil in disguise.” with that the ghost dissolved into thin air.</p><p>Rey looks at Ben who's still talking with the police chief,<br/>
<em> How can an angel be a devil in disguise? </em><br/>
Rey wonders.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>all critics are welcomed xx</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. The Day Rey Received an Invitation</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>This chapter will introduce Snoke and Bazine Netal.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I decided to change the title.. sorry for the inconsistency..<br/>This is a short chapter, but I hope you enjoy it x</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The carpeted floor silenced the sound of the footsteps. Bazine Netal, the secretary to Coruscant's most powerful man, Alexander Snoke, striding through the dimly lit hallway of the government building, heading to the hexagonal office that is Alexander Snoke’s office room for the next few months as Senator of Coruscant. The man just finishes his meeting with his ‘minions’ planning for the election that’s coming soon in Coruscant. The man will win. Again. Bazine is sure of it.</p><p>The other candidates don't stand a chance against Alexander Snoke. How does she know this? Because she study, study and keep on studying about the science of politics, power, law of economics and politics, observed the candidates, and so far, only Snoke stood out in her eyes. She wouldn’t be nodding off her head to the old geezer if it ain’t for the power that he holds over Coruscant. Bazine Netal’s loyalty will only be given to the man with the absolute power. That power is currently held in Alexander Snoke’s hand.</p><p>The report came a few hours ago and Snoke had given her an order to report it immediately to him. Before telling the report to Snoke, Bazine had read every single one of them. Being the secretary to the most powerful man in Coruscant has given her insights to Coruscant’s underworld. She knows the dirty secrets that the judges of the supreme court in Coruscant has, she knows the police commissioner in Coruscant dirtiest secret, or the corruption that the men in the government have been doing for the past 20 years. Snoke, being a sneaky old man that he is, had put his spies everywhere the moment he’s appointed as Senator. The man trusts no one.</p><p>The report that came from his ‘agents’ will be passed through Bazine first then she will read it to Snoke. Which makes everything easier for Bazine to decide when the man fell off his high horse, to abandon the ship she’s in.</p><p>Two praetorian guards, Snoke’s private guards as the senator of Coruscant, opened the two heavy wooden doors for her before entering the hexagonal office. When she step into the room, she the smells of cigars and scotch fills her nose. The cigars and scotch must be enjoyed by Snoke and his cronies a moment ago, because now the old geezer is alone, sitting behind his giant glass table and reading off of his data pad. He looks up at Bazine when she walks in and raises an eyebrow at her.</p><p>“Sir, we received a report from Agent 7.”</p><p>Snoke turned off his data pad and put it away on the glass table. There are 7 agents in total of Snoke’s spies in Coruscant.</p><p>“Fire away Miss Netal.”</p><p>Bazine took out her data pad and she opened a folder that had been sent through email from ‘Agent 7’ a few hours ago.</p><p>“Agent 7 reported that First Order ltd suffers from falling production this month. Their profit decreased by 1,3% from the monthly report that was held on Thursday last week.” the old geezer chuckles.</p><p>“The factor?”</p><p>“Um.. Agent 7 reported that it is due to a paranormal activity at their biggest factory in Takodana.” the old geezer laughs. Bazine had read the report several times, to make sure she read it right. <em> Paranormal activity..? </em></p><p>“Poor Solo. He has a bunch of idiots as his staff. ‘Paranormal activity’ ? that’s just a sad excuse..”</p><p>As if right on cue, the television on Snoke’s right that is on News Channel, finishes its commercial advertisement and the news of the day starts..</p><p>The news anchor starts the moment the opening music of the news channel stopped, “Ben Solo the owner of First Order ltd. had helped the police in Takodana in search of a missing woman. The police had been on the lookout for a month before the staff of First Order reported the missing lady.” Bazine and Snoke turn their head to look at the flat tv. The scene from the tv news studio pans to an old man that looks to be in his 80s and a young girl that looks to be in her mid 30s.</p><p>“My daughter, Veronica, went missing a month ago. We don’t know where she was, what she was doing or who she was with. We were very desperate, and then we received a call from the police that she'd been found. We want to give our deepest thanks to Ben Solo, the chief told us that he was one of the hikers that found my daughter’s body..” the scene then pans to a man. The words on the lower part of the scene shows that he’s Miles, the security guard of the First Order’s factory in Takodana.</p><p>“I worked at the factory for almost 10 years now. Only met the man twice myself but Mister Solo is a great man.”</p><p>Snoke's eyes squints at the television. The scene then shows Ben Solo wearing casual clothing getting into his sleek black sports car with a woman, with police officers and paramedics around them buzzing around doing their assigned job at the scene where they found the body of the missing woman. The woman that got into the car with the Solo boy, Snoke doesn’t recognise her, he realises.</p><p>“Miss Netal,” Bazine’s shoulder straightened and tensed.<br/>
“Tell Agent 7 to be on alert. Report everything back to me no matter how small the information is.”<br/>
“Yes sir.”<br/>
“I mean it. Everything. <em> Exempli gratia</em>, the woman that got into the car with him. Her name, her job, her family, anything from the record.”</p><p>“Yes sir.”</p><p> </p><p>…</p><p> </p><p>Bazine is back striding in the government building’s hall after she delivered Agent 7’s report to Snoke. She knew the report was about Ben Solo. Benjamin Solo, the only son of Alderaan’s former senator Leia Organa-Solo and drunken sailor, Han Solo. <em>Leia can do better than him</em>, Bazine loses her mind thinking about what Leia Organa-Solo saw in that old coot of a sailor.</p><p>Bazine might not have worked long enough for Snoke to know the history between him and the Solos, but she will know about it eventually. For the past 10 years she works for him, the history is starting to unfold. What she know now is that Snoke had been involved in the killing of Han Solo 17 years ago in Alderaan, his cronies, of course, involved. Including Alderaan’s current Senator.</p><p>Bazine has been working for the government for the past 13 years, she knows that silencing people by killing them is needed to keep things airtight. Han Solo is just unlucky to be caught in the middle of this fucking circus.</p><p>Bazine arrives in her office that’s located not too far from Snoke’s. She immediately typed in Snoke’s order to Agent 7.</p><p>
  <em>The message has been delivered.</em>
</p><p>Bazine look up from her desk and her eyes wonder to the sight outside her office window. She still remembers Snoke’s words from years ago when she just got appointed to be Snoke’s secretary and her ‘special’ job is told to her by him. Bazine had been surprised to know about the 7 agents. Snoke calls them his ‘knights’, and Snoke told her their specific tasks. Each one is put in different companies, some even put in the government itself to watch out for any backstabber or even other spies from Snoke's enemy.</p><p>Agent 7 is put in First Order ltd obviously to spy on Ben Solo because Snoke and the boy had a bitter history together. Snoke keeping an eye on the boy as an alarm if the boy is sniffing any closer to the murder of his father or if he joins Snoke opposing party or if he's planning something to bring Snoke down.</p><p>Snoke is one paranoid man.</p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Two weeks have gone by since Rey visited the factory in Takodana. Ben had driven her home after and he only talked to her through text yesterday to tell her about the progress in the factory and also to thank her. After Rey took care of the woman in red, the factory is back to its normal atmosphere. Everyone is no longer feeling pressured or stressed out while doing their job, the heater works well, no more machines turning on and off by themselves, and no more paranormal disturbances felt by the workers. Rey feels so happy knowing about it. </p><p>She misses Ben. After her encounter with the woman in red, ghosts she doesn’t recognise in the supermarket still scares her but thankfully she has her best friend Rose who knows and understand her so well.</p><p>But no one can make her feel the way Ben did. One touch from him and she feels as if a giant blanket is put around her shoulder. She felt so safe and guarded. He makes her feel as if there’s a house for her with everything she’ll need already waiting inside for her, all she had to do was to touch him. He feels as comfortable as her old bedroom back in jakku where she felt the safest and he feels as warm as the sun in summer. <em>Is it stupid to think so?</em> She wonders. It makes her sound so silly, since she doesn’t even know a thing about Ben besides who his father and mother is. What about his favourite food? Or movie? If he loves any..</p><p>Poe, her manager, had came to her on Monday to question her about what happened between her and First Order, Rey simply answered ‘some business in the First Order’s factory’ and with a heavy heart, Rey lied to Poe by telling him that Rey signed an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) so she can’t really talk about it to Poe. Poe understands that and after that he left Rey in peace to do her job in the supermarket.</p><p>Han Solo sometimes would visit her in the supermarket. He would talk and talk about how his son keeps on working like a machine and that he doesn’t know when to relax and take some rest. Rey quickly noted that in her head; workaholic. She probably should stop wishing for him to take her out..</p><p>Funny how the universe works. Because Rey who’s currently lazing around in her bed with her cat, Baby on a Saturday morning, a text came from Ben.</p><p>
  <strong>Ben Solo</strong>:<br/>
Busy?<br/>
Brunch 11.30 with me?
</p><p>
 
    <em>No, where? </em>
 
</p><p>
  <strong>Ben Solo</strong>:<br/>
I’ll pick you up. Get ready now.
</p><p>
  Rey quickly picks out her nicest sundress, because today is a beautiful sunny Saturday. <em>I will look good at least once with him</em>, she thinks. After shower, she decides to wear a pale yellow dress with her white sneakers and then she put her long hair in a fishtail.
</p><p>
  Rey takes a look at herself in the mirror.<br/>
<em>I look okay. Just okay. Not anything near gorgeous or pretty</em>, she thinks.<br/>
Rey decide to put on a little makeup wearing medium coverage bb cream, powder, mascara, blush on, and a nude lip gloss. After she put on her makeup, her eyes widen at the sight of herself in the mirror
</p><p>
  
    <em> Shit. Is this.. too much? </em>
  
</p><p>
  Gwen, her roommate, decide that it is the right time to barge into her room.
</p><p>
  “Rey, I ran out of my cereal, can I eat.. wow.” she stops in the middle of her sentence with her head poking through Rey’s gaping bedroom door. Gwen’s eyes scanning Rey up and down.<br/>
“Are you.. going somewhere?” Gwen realises that Rey rarely put on her makeup or even a pretty sundress. Hell, in her time as her roommate of 7 months Gwen only saw Rey in a dress three times.
</p><p>
  Rey turns to look at her roommate shyly. Her hand suddenly feels wet and clammy. She nodded shyly at Gwen at the door.
</p><p>
  Gwen smiles at that, and steps into her bedroom and comes to a stop in front of her.<br/>
“You look beautiful..” Gwen whispers. She gives Rey a twirl with her hand and Rey shyly twirled.
</p><p>
  “I believe you need just a little more..” Gwen says with both her eyes squinting. Not finishing her sentence, Gwen suddenly walks out of Rey’s bedroom and comes back a moment later bringing a pair of daisy earrings.
</p><p>
  “Wear this.. it’ll go well with your dress.” Gwen helps Rey put on the earring.
</p><p>
  “Thank you..” Rey shyly tells Gwen that.
</p><p>
  “So.. are you gonna tell me who you’ll go out with?” Gwen playfully raises her eyebrow at Rey and smirks at her too.<br/>
“I-it’s um..” Rey’s phone suddenly rings, it saves her from her stuttering.
</p><p>
 Rey looks at the name and turns out that it’s Ben. Rey picks it up.<br/>
“Im in front of your apartment.”<br/>
“Okay, I’ll be down in a sec.” with that she tucked her phone into her bag.
</p><p>
  “Im sorry Gwen, I-I have to go now..” Rey said, she’s walking towards the front door now, feeling relieved not having to answer Gwen's question now with Gwen tailing behind her.
</p><p>
  “Okay.. have fun!”
</p><p>
 Rey shuts the front door gently and she immediately run down the stairs to reach the lobby. Can she or can’t she tell Gwen about this? Gwen will want to know how she got close to Ben Solo.. and Rey doesn’t even know what kind of relationship she has with Ben Solo. She’s not exactly dating him.. is she? As much as she wants to but.. she’s not. She knows.
</p><p>
 When Rey walks out of her apartment, she sees a white Range Rover in front of it, not Ben’s usual black car. She stood idly in front of the apartment entrance, looking around the street for Ben’s sleek black car.
</p><p>
  “Rey!” The window of the Range Rover rolled down and she could hear Ben’s voice. Rey walks timidly to the white car.
</p><p>
 “Ben?”
</p><p>
  “Get in.”
</p><p>
...
</p><p>
  Agent 7's specialized skill is to blend in. Right now, Agent 7 is disguised as an old man drinking black coffee on a sunny Saturday, in a cafe across from where Ben Solo is. The unidentified woman that was seen getting into a car with him on Saturday, is with him again. Agent 7 recognises that she isn’t his typical model type. She’s not that tall in height, she’s not as toned as his other exes, she’s not hot and blonde, and of course, not as fashionable as his other exes.
</p><p>
  Snoke had ordered Agent 7 to find out who the girl is. Her name, address, job, and family lineage. But Agent 7 hasn't looked for any of it. Agent 7 needs to know first if the girl is involved any further with Ben or if she was just luckily on the spot where Ben and Maz found the body of the woman in Takodana. Since she’s here right now with Ben Solo on what seems to be a casual brunch, she must be involved with him to some degree. Agent 7 works for First Order long enough to be able to judge Ben Solo’s character. Agent 7 knows that Ben would not invite her to this casual outing if it doesn’t bring him any benefit because Ben Solo is not a man that would just come down for something that won’t bring any benefit or profitable to him or the First Order. Frankly, the girl looks like a charity case for Ben Solo.
</p><p>
  He might as well have brunch with his fling, Carmen Stewart, the rising starlet that was involved with him a few months ago. Agent 7 knows that he has an on and off relationship with the film actress. Stewart brought exposure to Solo’s company, that’s why he’s hanging on to her for the benefit of the company. Agent 7 heard Solo complaining about Stewart in his office a few times a few months ago. The man will endure any painful relationship for the sake of his company. So why with this plain girl? Agent 7 mentally took note to look for information about the mystery girl.
</p><p>
  Snoke is not involved in the killing of the woman in Takodana but if Ben Solo’s status suddenly rises in public, that will cause Snoke a migraine. Ben needs to be put in the dark of what happened 17 years ago. He knows next to nothing about the accident that hit his father and one of Agent 7’s tasks is to make sure it stays that way.
</p><p>
  After carefully taking a picture of the brunette that sat in front of Ben Solo, Agent 7 sips the black coffee on the table calmly with eyes still focusing on the pair.
</p><p>
…
</p><p>
“I want to offer you a job.”
</p><p>
Rey chokes on her lemonade.
</p><p>
  “w-wHAT?” she’s staring at Ben with wide eyes. All of her nervous thoughts went away. Ben smirks at the girl. The moment Rey sees that smirk, she feels the ground beneath her feet melting like candles under a hot burning fire.
</p><p>
“A job. At the First Order. Your roommate works there too. I also thought that it’d be easier for us to meet and for me to contact you whenever I need you.” Ben’s beautiful eyes focusing on the girl in front of him. <em>She looks lovely today</em>, he thought fleetingly. Rey’s mouth gaping like a fish out of water.
</p><p>
 “You’re serious?” she chirps.
</p><p>
 “Yeah of course I am Rey. The pay is better than what you’re earning from that supermarket, I’m sure. You can even move to a better apartment with First Order’s salary.” Rey went still and she kept staring at Ben. Ben chuckles looking at her adorable expression.
</p><p>
 A million words going round and round inside Rey’s head; <em>Working at First Order? With Ben? I can meet Ben every day on weekdays? Being in close proximity with Ben? I can touch Ben whenever I want? wait.. </em>
</p><p>
 “So? Are you in?” Ben’s question woke Rey from her reverie.
</p><p>
 “Um.. I.. i-if you want me to work there,” Rey starts.
</p><p>
 “Of course I do.”
</p><p>
 “Then you have to let me do one thing.” she needs to make sure the one thing she need the most. Ben’s expression turns serious. His lips, his oh so beautiful, hypnotizing, pink lips, pursed. Ben nods at Rey to continue.
</p><p>
  “You will let me touch you whenever I want.” Rey conveyed the words inside her brain innocently. The girl doesn’t realise how provocative it sounds in Ben’s ears. This time it is his eyes that went wide. He can feel the tips of his ears went hot. <em>Is it hot today?</em>
</p><p>
  “You.. Want to be able to.. Touch me.. Freely?”
</p><p>
  Rey nods. Her eyes still flashing innocently at him. Ben gulps down.
</p><p>
 “Whenever you want?”
</p><p>
 The girl nods again.<br/>
“Because the ghosts will go away if I touch you.” she explains with that puppy eyes of hers. Ben quirks an eyebrow at her. He doesn’t believe her yet with this. But Ben knows that Rey can be a precious asset to have in First Order. Who knows what he’ll face next? and besides, having Rey near and close to him somehow makes him feel safe. Ben can’t put his finger on the feeling that he feels when Rey stares at him the way she is right now. A warm feeling inside his chest, a fluttering in his stomach, and his brain suddenly feels like a tv with those grey grains. It stops functioning for a moment. Ben blinked. Rey is nervously waiting for him patiently to say something.
</p><p>
  Ben has set his mind to have Rey close to him, therefore making her work in First Order. She must be close to him, somehow that's what his mind keep on repeating in his head.
</p><p>
 He nods, “alright.. deal. You can touch me whenever you want. But only.. ONLY when a ghost is near you.”
</p><p>
  Rey’s eyes lit up. The girl nodded her head enthusiastically and she sat straighter in her chair. She flashes Ben a wide smile that shows Ben her pearly white teeth. Ben thought that it would be just an innocent little touch to make Rey feel safe from the ghosts, little did he know, later on, it is <em>he</em> who will want more than just an innocent touch from her..
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>ehehe &gt;:)<br/>critics are very appreciated x</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. The Day Rey Start Her New Job</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rey takes a look at herself in the mirror. She’s wearing a pink shirt with a cream sweater and light brown pants. Today is her first day working for First Order ltd, she’s feeling excited and also nervous because of it. When Rey told Poe that she wants to resign from Anavrin, Poe had questioned her if she feel uncomfortable working at Anavrin, etc. Rey told Poe honestly that she actually received an offer to work for First Order ltd and Rey also told Poe that she really want the position offered to her in First Order that’s why she can’t say no to it. Poe only nodded his head and told Rey that he understood what she meant.</p>
<p>Poe ended the conversation by saying that if Rey want her position in Anavrin back, Rey can call Poe anytime and he’ll give it to her whenever she need it.</p>
<p>Talking to Rose about it is harder. Rey remembers a week before she stop working for Anavrin, Rey decided to tell Rose about Han Solo the Ghost and about Ben. Rey told Rose that she want to help Han Solo the Ghost, and to do so she needed to be close to Ben to save more time and also to make communication with Ben easier. Then, Rose held Rey’s hand and stares at Rey sadly,</p>
<p>“I want what’s best for you. I’ll miss you working here.” Rose says.</p>
<p>“It’s not goodbye you know.. I’ll still hangout with you,” Rey said to Rose.</p>
<p>“Rey! Are you ready? We have to take the 8.00 am bus if we don’t want to be late!” yells Gwen from across the room. Rey quickly took her bag and walk out of her room holding her sneakers that she just cleaned two days ago.<br/>“Hey, yeah I’m ready.” Rey says to Gwen who’s already waiting for her in their living room.</p>
<p>Gwen is shocked when she knows that Rey will be working at First Order. Rey told Gwen about it a few days before when they were having lunch together on a Sunday. Gwen didn’t know that there’s an empty position at First Order. In fact, to be able to work at First Order, one must go through several tests including a psychological test and interviews. Did Rey already go through it all? Gwen can’t remember that the office has an empty position, they are all filed. When Gwen asked Rey what position she’s in, the girl seemed reluctant to answer, so Gwen didn't push it.</p>
<p>Rey told Gwen that Ben was the one who offered her the position. Benjamin fucking Solo. Gwen’s head went blank. <em>What in the devil is going on between them?</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>…</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The room is dimly lit, there’s a curtain hanging on the window, blocking the sun access to brighten the room. Rey walks over to it, and opens the curtain to let some of the sun in. she coughed up a little from whatever was flying in the air, mostly dust, then she take a look around her new office. The room is a bit dusty. There are old boxes stacked at the corner, there is dust gathering on its surface. The glass table is clean, so is the chair behind it. The empty racks are a bit dusty still. This is her own private office. She’s excited and giddy when Ben walked her to her office in First Order. The man is leaning on the door, watching her movement curiously.</p>
<p>“I told someone to clean the room a bit. We used this room as document storage but it’s moved to the lower floor now so you can work here.”</p>
<p>Rey walk all around the room, eyeing every bit of space thinking of what she should put and what she can put on the racks, on the empty table and wall.</p>
<p>“You can put a little bit of your stuff in here, a bit of personal touch to make it more.. Homey I suppose.”</p>
<p>Rey is smiling from ear to ear when she turn to look at Ben who’s still leaning on the door.</p>
<p>“I like it.”</p>
<p>Ben smiled at the girl curtly.</p>
<p>“There’s an empty cubicle out there near Christie’s cubicle but, this room is closer to my office, so.. It’s uh, easier to reach me whenever you need me and for me to reach you.”</p>
<p>“where ‘s your room?”</p>
<p>Ben gives the girl a sign with his head to follow him when he walks out of the room so she did. Ben’s office is just a few walking distance from Rey’s. He opened the door and gestured to Rey to enter first, so she did.</p>
<p>“This is.. Uh, my office.”</p>
<p>His office is.. A mess yet it looks kind of cool to Rey. There are folders all over his table, a big, thin, and white computer is sitting on top of his glass table. Behind the table is a floor to window glass, overlooking the busy streets of Coruscant. To Rey’s right there’s a floor to ceiling rack filled with books, maps, what seems to be even more documents and what seems to be trophies. The wall in front of the table is filled with framed charters and awards; Company of The Year, Best Food Company, and many more. There’s a coffee table and a pair of couches around it near the book rack. Rey can see there’s a bottle of whiskey in the middle of the coffee table.</p>
<p>“It’s a bit of a mess, I was.. Quite stressed out with the problems in the factory in Takodana.” he shyly looks at Rey who’s still taking in the sight of his office.</p>
<p>“Tell him to stop drinking alcohol and start eating salad more.”</p>
<p>Rey jerks to the wall. The sound of her bumping the wall so suddenly made Ben jump.</p>
<p>“W-what? Is something here?” he quickly asks Rey. Ben roams his office with his eyes. Expecting to see anything even when he knows he won’t see anything. Rey is staring straight in front of her, yet Ben sees nothing. Rey clears her voice.</p>
<p>“It’s your father. He said you need to stop drinking alcohol and start eating salad more.” she said. Ben’s eyes squint at that.</p>
<p>“He’s here?”</p>
<p>Rey nods.</p>
<p>“Hey.. dad” Ben rolls his eyes then he takes another roam around his office with his eyes, “I will stop drinking when I put my company back into shape and when you stop stalking me.” Ben had been drinking more the past few days, weeks actually. Truthfully, this month has been a rollercoaster ride for him. From the fallen production and meeting Rey. Rey.. he had met this woman only a month ago and yet, ever since Ben met the woman, his life suddenly revolves around her. She showed Ben a new world he would never believe if it’s not because of her.</p>
<p>He’s seen it. The whole new world. Through her. Through a confused looking woman, who’s very timid and shy when you try to talk to her. But that woman is the key in knowing a whole new world you never thought existed.</p>
<p>“He said he’ll never stop watching over you..”</p>
<p>Ben blinked.</p>
<p>“Right.. About that..” Ben sighed and closed the door behind them. Ben walk up to the couch then sit on them. Rey timidly follows Ben and sit opposite him.</p>
<p>“We need to start somewhere..” he sighed while he pinched the space between his eyes.</p>
<p>Ben thinks about the car repair shop his father used to bring his car to. Do they still keep the document or report from seventeen years ago? Ben is thinking to start off their investigation about Han’s accident from the car.  The goddamn Falcon.</p>
<p>Ever since Han’s accident, Ben never looked at Falcon cars the same. He feels anger and sadness every time he sees a Falcon car go by on the street passing him. It makes him think back to the last day he sees Han and their last conversation. Ben will never admit this because he’s a stubborn man, just like both of his parents, but Ben feels guilty with how he ended the last conversation that he had with Han. He feels an unbearable sadness whenever he thinks about it. He thinks that should’ve done better.</p>
<p>The car repair shop back in Alderaan is owned by Charlie, Han called him Chewie, an old friend. Ben hasn’t heard from him in a long time. Ben doesn’t even know if he’s still alive or if he still runs the car repair shop. But they have to start somewhere, so Ben decided they’ll start on the car that his father drove on the day of the accident.</p>
<p>“I’ve put you in a new section in First Order. I think with your unique ability we can put it into a good use for research.”</p>
<p>Rey’s ears perks up, “research?”</p>
<p>Ben nods, “yeah. We have some kind of a deal that you’ll help me find out who murdered my father, so.. Research. We have to investigate a lot of things dating back to seventeen years ago. How old were you seventeen years ago?”</p>
<p>“That’s actually right.. You’re right. I, um, I was.. Five. How old were you..?”</p>
<p>“I was 15. Right, okay, uh.. We can start by looking into my dad’s old car, the one that he crashed. I was thinking about going to a car repair shop that my dad used to go to in Alderaan.”</p>
<p>“Your father said that’s right. Chewie still own that shop.”</p>
<p>Ben’s heart drop. How does she know about Chewie and his shop?</p>
<p>Shit. right, his dad is here in the office and she can talk to him.</p>
<p>“Uh.. can you.. Ask my dad where we should start this investigation first? Or maybe we can hire a private detective..”</p>
<p>Ben looks up at Rey and he sees Rey staring at Ben’s right. He follows the line of her sight, but he sees nothing on his right. It makes Ben’s skin tingles.</p>
<p>“He said don’t hire a private detective because it’s too dangerous. He doesn’t want anymore blood spilled because of him. He also said that starting from Chewie’s shop is a good idea and that we should follow through from there.” Rey parrots back what Han Solo the Ghost said to her. Ben watches the girl curiously. He wants to know what his father looks like now, after seventeen years of not seeing him. But Ben keeps that to himself.</p>
<p>“Of course he doesn’t want that, but this will put our lives on the line too. He said he suspect Snoke and his cronies behind the car crash, doesn’t that mean we will be up against Coruscant’s senator and possibly other senators and the government of Coruscant’s higher ups? We will be kicking the sleeping hornets’ nest..”</p>
<p>Ben knows Snoke's cronies well. People with power and money over cities, corrupt judges, people who run illegal cartels, who do monopoly over the city, and so on. It is a nasty gang of people Ben can never imagine to cross with. Even with the money that he has, he never does anything shady or illegal business. He paid taxes, he does his workers justice, he’s a good CEO, and he is proud of it.</p>
<p>“Your father said.. We can go to your mother. For safety and backup.” Ben who’s looking down at the bottle of whiskey on the table, tempting him, snaps his neck to look at Rey. He suddenly groans and that made Rey jump on her seat.</p>
<p>“He also said that it is the only sensible thing to do, since your mother has..”</p>
<p>“People who are loyal to her and will always support her, I know.” Ben finishes her sentence. Ben knows that sooner or later he will have to face his mother. But for so long, Ben just can’t stop running from her. Ben feels partly guilty when she loses her seat to Moden Canady. Ben quickly pushes that thought aside. He doesn’t want to think about that in front of Rey. He somehow feels that the woman in front of him can see through his mask that he put on and right now, if he keep thinking about it, tears will fall down his face, and Ben hates vulnerability in front of a woman.</p>
<p>“I think we’ll talk about this more later. You should start working in your new office. If you need something just call on Mitaka. He’s my secretary.”</p>
<p>As if right on cue, a knock sounded on Ben’s office door and then a man about five foot six bringing papers with him walk into the room. The man clears his throat.<br/>“Sir, there is a conference call with the Hapes branch in 20 minutes.”</p>
<p>Ben nodded at the man and signal him to come closer. Ben takes the paper from the man and then read them. The man eyed Rey curiously from his position standing on Ben’s side.</p>
<p>“Mitaka, this is our new research staff, Rey Johnson.” Ben says, as if knowing the stares the man gives to Rey. The man, Mitaka, smiles at Rey. A small smile but it looks sincere.<br/>“You will assist her when she needs you. Whatever it is that she needs.” Ben adds. His eyes still focusing on the paper that he held in front of him.</p>
<p>“Of course sir.” says Mitaka.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>…</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Armitage’s eyes widen when he sees Ben walking with his usual air of confidence around him. But what actually made Armitage heart clenches is when he sees Rey walking next to him with her head held down. The other worker doesn’t seem to even bat their eyelashes at Ben and Rey. Ben didn’t tell Armitage anything about Rey. Armitage's brain immediately thinks back to the day when he saw Ben’s car in front of Rey and Gwen’s apartment building, and when Rey got off from his car.</p>
<p>Armitage knows Ben’s taste in woman and Rey is far from it.</p>
<p>
  <em>What’s your game now Ben?</em>
</p>
<p>Armitage watched them walking through the glass walls of his office. His blue eyes followed Ben and Rey until the duo disappeared around a corner, heading to Ben’s office. Only then he got up from his seat and walk briskly to Christie’s cubicle.</p>
<p>“Christie! What the hell is Rey doing with Solo?” he hissed lowly, right away when he entered Gwen’s cubicle. Armitage hunched over Gwen who’s sitting down in front of her computer. Gwen blinks several times before she replies to Armitage.</p>
<p>“Sir, to be fair, I don’t know either. The girl told me a few days ago that she’ll start working here under direct offering from Mister Solo. She didn’t tell me what position she’s in..”</p>
<p>“And you didn’t ask her about it?”</p>
<p>“I did but.. She seemed reluctant to answer and I didn’t want to push her.” Gwen says defensively.</p>
<p>“Don’t you think that it’s odd? Solo taking Rey in when we both clearly know that there’s no room for a new staff here?” </p>
<p>“I.. Yes, but frankly, I think it’s none of my business, sir.”</p>
<p>Armitage bristles. He took a step back from Gwen that’s visibly confused with her senior attitude. Armitage then walks back to his office with one of his hands covering his mouth. His mood turns sour and it’s only 9 in the morning. Gwen watches her senior that’s walking away curiously.</p>
<p>“He alright?”</p>
<p>Gwen turns her head, finding her pal, Oliver, peeking his head into Gwen’s cubicle with a worried expression written on his face.</p>
<p>“Cloudy mood I think. Better watch your feet closely today Ollie.” Gwen says, shrugging her shoulder, focusing back to her task on her computer.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>…</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Agent 7 can’t believe the sight of Ben Solo and the girl walking side by side heading into his office. Agent 7 quickly walk around the area of the office with both ears straining to hear the hushed conversation of the workers, but none seemed to mind the unknown woman. They were all talking about their own private lives, and some talked about their determination to put First Order back into shape. Agent 7 walked calmly back into their office.</p>
<p>Agent 7 sat back into their chair and opened their data pad secured with encryption to read back the information they found a few days ago about the unknown girl.</p>
<p>Her name is Rey Johnson, born and lived in Jakku until the age of 20. She moved to Coruscant when she turned 21. Now 22 years old she works as a cleaning girl at a supermarket, and interestingly, an orphan. Both of her parents, Evelyn and George Johnson, were scientists who died in a car crash in Alderaan 17 years ago. The girl was 5 when it happened. The girl then lived with her uncle, Ewan Johnson, before he died when she’s 16. Ever since then, the girl has lived all by herself.</p>
<p>To add the last icing to the cake, both of Rey’s parents died in a car crash on the same date and location of Han Solo’s accident. Agent 7 hasn’t decided to trace Johnson’s parents to or not. They know they should report it to Snoke first and await for his order.</p>
<p>What are the chances that the victims' kids are now together?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>Something is brewing.</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Agent 7’s heartbeat picks up. It seems the tasks given from Snoke will get interesting from now on. Finally something to get excited about after working peacefully for the past few years.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Just to make things clear:<br/>Han died when Ben was 15.<br/>Rey's parents died when she was 5.<br/>The accident happened 17 years ago.</p>
<p>I'm using "they-their" because I don't want to reveal Agent 7 gender yet aha.. can you guess who it is? x</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. The Day Rey Meet The Woman In A Vase</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Leia makes her entrance in this fic &amp; Ben and Rey make a short trip to Hapes.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Threepio has been the butler for the Organa-Solo estate for the past 35 years. Now he’s already old and wrinkled but his memory is still as fresh as flowers in the morning light. Threepio still remembers very clearly when the little family of Organa-Solo consisting of Han Solo, Leia Organa-Solo, and little Ben Solo all still live in the estate and when there is still so much love and warmth in it.</p><p>Threepio still remembers the days where he used to chase down buck naked young master Solo in the corridor to put on his clothes after a bath, or when Han Solo kept sneaking into the kitchen before supper time to munch on cakes and scones. Now the estate feels far more colder as if it has its own winter in each of the rooms. Regardless, Threepio and the army of the servants who're still serving the estate cleans the rooms regularly, trying to keep the atmosphere alive.</p><p>There used to be scattered toys in the corridors of the estate or laughter of boys and girls friends of young master Solo, but now in Threepio’s opinion, the corridor is too clean and empty. No more laughter ringing or feets shuffling on the wooden floor. Even when there are photos of the family and paintings on its walls. Threepio sometimes thinks that its corridor would suddenly roar the voice of Han Solo, calling on Threepio, from his office. He quickly shakes the thought from his head.</p><p>In the morning, Lady Leia routine would inquire Threepio bringing the breakfast tray prepared by the chef of the estate, to the terrace on the second floor of the estate. Lady Leia likes to have her breakfast in the fresh air of the morning while she enjoys her morning paper. Though nowadays the morning paper has switched to a data pad to reach news from other country or city easier, for example, Coruscant.</p><p>As the only Organa-Solo left who lives in a big estate, Threepio know that Lady Leia must be lonely and missing her only son who ran off to Coruscant when he was 22, which happened about 10 years ago. The estate was already in a dire situation when Han died, but then 7 years after he died, Ben Solo decided to leave the estate to live in Coruscant, ignoring his mother's pleas not to leave her or the estate behind.</p><p>Lady Leia’s friends would sometimes visit, or even her twin, Luke, who’s running a school for boys in Ach-To, But they only visited for a handful of times, and after that, Leia would retreat back into her shell.</p><p>When Threepio reached the terrace, Lady Leia is sitting in her usual seat, facing the beautiful view of a lake behind the estate, with sunrise decorating the blue sky and the morning fog still wafting in the air. Threepio without making any sound, serves the breakfast tray unto the table in front of Lady Leia.</p><p>“Good morning Threepio,”</p><p>“Good morning my lady. The breakfast today is the usual waffles with maple syrup and whip cream, a bowl of fruits, and your favourite apple juice.”</p><p>“Thank you Threepio” Lady Leia closes her eyes for a moment before opening them again and turns her head to look at the butler clearly, “when you’re old, you just can’t stop admiring nature and enjoy yourself by eating a delicious breakfast tray,” then she chuckles to herself.</p><p>Threepio smiles at that, “Any good news from the data pad this morning my lady?” ask Threepio as Leia stirs her apple juice with a stainless steel straw.</p><p>“Yes, there’s finally a good news written about him, instead of his ‘affair’ with that Stewart starlet. He and Maz found a dead woman’s body near his factory in Takodana and their family received help from Ben. He gave the family a good sum of money to aid the woman’s family so they can have a good and proper funeral.”</p><p>“Oh, that’s a good news in years I dare say.”</p><p>Lady Leia laughs at that, “that boy can’t stop burying himself with dating rumours left and right yes.”</p><p>The wind blew softly in the roof-less terrace. Leia turns her head, finding Han Solo’s ghost standing not too far from her. Lady Leia smiles at the sight. Knowing that Lady Leia is probably seeing something in front of her, Threepio excuses himself out of the terrace.</p><p>When Threepio is out of earshot, Leia greets her husband excitedly, “I see you’ve been busy.”</p><p>Han Solo the Ghost smiles warmly at his wife, “I think I’ve found a way to help him now.”</p><p>“You do?”</p><p>Han Solo the Ghost nods, “I’ve found someone with the same ability that you and Luke have. Maybe this time he will finally believe the existence of the world that I’m in now. And plus, she’s a really nice girl.”</p><p>Leia scoffs.</p><p>“Princess, don’t you lie to me that you haven’t already expecting to hold your own granddaughter or grandson.”</p><p>Leia squints her eyes at her husband who’s using the nickname he gave her years and years ago when they just started dating.<br/>
“You’re right.. But it’s hard to admit that when all the girls Ben ever dated are those girls Han..” Leia sighed as she start cutting up her waffles after generously pouring it with maple syrup.</p><p>“True.. but I think you’ll like this one.”</p><p>“If you think so then I will, I guess.”</p><p> </p><p>…</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “How long will you go?” The little girl pouted, hugging her pink bunny doll, sitting on her parents’ king sized bed. Evelyn and George Johnson went around in their bedroom packing up some clothes for a two nights stay at Alderaan. Evelyn put down her sweater that she just picked up from the wardrobe, into a grey duffle bag. Then, she came over to her one and only daughter, kneeling in front of the child.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“It will be just two days Rey, I promise! You will be staying with Uncle Ewan and Aunty Jane! Isn’t that exciting?” Evelyn speaks to her daughter using her most happy tone. The young girl is still pouting. George Johnson who just finished packing his clothes, walk over to his girls.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Rey, sweetheart, I promise you, after this trip we will go to the new amusement park together.” George says as he crouches down next to his wife. He lovingly pets Rey’s hair and landed his palm on her chubby cheeks, gently cradling it.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Rey’s hazel eyes twinkling at her father’s words.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“You promised?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“We promise! Just the three of us to the amusement park.” convince Evelyn, as she kisses Rey’s little forehead, “Mwah. Now I need you to be a good girl and wait for us, okay?” </em>
</p><p> </p><p>Rey’s eyes shot open. She took a careful sweep of her surroundings. She’s in her bed in Unkar Plutt’s apartment in Coruscant. She’s 22, not 5. Her parents are dead, not alive. Her mother’s words ringing in her ears.</p><p>Tears suddenly gathering at the end of her eyes, it keeps gathering until it falls down her cheeks. She just dreamt of the last time she will ever see her parents. Seeing them as ghosts help a little. But what she actually want is to be able to grow old with them, touch them physically, and celebrate things with them. Seeing her parents in dreams makes Rey feel as if her deep cut wound is being poured over with a lemonade. It stings, it hurts that she knows she can never have them here with her.</p><p>Rey’s parents stayed being a ghost until the day Rey turned 13. They finally accepted the fact that they’re dead, and that their daughter lives okay with her uncle and aunty.</p><p>Rey always try to stay positive though. With thoughts such as her parents are now happy in the beyond, in the afterlife. They’re no longer suffering. Then she thinks about Ben’s father, Han. Han must be really tired of being a ghost for so many years, not being able to cross over to the beyond.</p><p>Rey made up her mind. She must help Han no matter what. She has to help him cross over to the beyond, so that he will be able to live in the afterlife peacefully.</p><p>It has been three weeks since she start working at First Order, and Rey has been nothing but observant to Ben while he’s in office. Rey notices that he loves his job. It looks like that at least. He came to the office at 8.55 just five minutes before 9am. Sometimes he’ll go out around lunch time to meet his business partners, sometimes he would ask Rey to have lunch with him and then they went out to have lunch together, just the two of them, and then Rey got back into the office while he does meetings with other business partners outside First Order office, and Rey came back to people in the office talking about her and Ben relationship.</p><p>They would sometimes say hurtful things about why Ben offered her a position at First Order. Some assume Rey is a poor distant relative of Ben, some even assume she got down on her knees for him at night. It makes Rey’s body shudder thinking about it. She ignored them most of the time and lock herself in the walls of her office.</p><p>But Armitage Hux has been nothing but kind and helpful to Rey. When Ben was out of the office and no one ask her to have lunch with her, and when Christie was busy and she chose to eat her lunch in the office, Armitage would ask her if she want to have lunch with him outside. Of course she said yes.</p><p>“So, you’re friends with Ben now?” Armitage asks one afternoon while they’re walking outside the office on the sidewalk, heading to a cafe near the building to have some lunch.<br/>
“Um.. I guess? I don’t know, he’s more like my.. Employer, I suppose.” Rey answered carefully. Hux scoffed.</p><p>“Right. Snobby Solo. But he’s being kind to you is he? Sorry if i’m prodding into something, I just want to help you if you feel uncomfortable or anything. I’m his friend since we’re in high school, just to uh, let you know. I can try to talk to him if he’s too pressuring you in your project.”</p><p>Rey assume Armitage knows about her position as a researcher but he doesn’t know the real reason why she’s there. Ben made it perfectly clear to her that no one but her, Ben, and Mitaka, can know about the real reason why Rey works at First Order. No one knows about her ability too, except for Ben and Mitaka. Under Ben’s strict and direct order, Mitaka must not talk to anyone about Rey’s ability or the reason why Ben offered her a position.</p><p>“Um no,” Rey looks up at Armitage and smiles at him, “he’s not pressuring me or anything, don’t worry, I’m okay.”</p><p>Armitage smiles back at Rey, “I know he can be real hard to new people. But you’ll let me know if he’s being an asshole to you?”</p><p>“Yes, I will.”</p><p>Rey and Armitage then eat their lunch at this little cafe that’s cute and charming, serving truffle chicken with butter rice. Armitage, Rey finds, is a pleasing company. But only because she has so little experience with men, Rey has no one to compare Armitage to, and so far, he is the kindest man that ever treats her.</p><p>The day after that, Rey has lunch again with Armitage. And again. And again. They have so many lunches together that each other notices their favorite order/meals. Rey favors chicken and spicy food a lot, while Armitage favors meat and savoury food.</p><p>Sometimes Rey sees ghosts in the cafe or restaurant that they go to. In an immediate reflex, without fail, Rey went and held Armitage’s arms. But he’s not Ben. Her heart would break remembering that, and the ghosts didn’t go away when Rey touches him.</p><p>“Sorry, I slipped.” Rey reasoned. This happened a few times. While Rey’s eyes are busy avoiding the sight of the ghost, Armitage’s ears went red. So does his face. He didn’t know Rey can be so touchy.</p><p>Rey met several ghosts at the First Order office. But most of them are.. Ghosts who think they’re still alive therefore acting like one. They’re ghost workers. They went about the office doing their assigned jobs when they’re still alive. None of them bat an eyelash when they know that Rey can see them. It’s actually pretty cool and it makes Rey feel safe knowing that none will suddenly come and attack her out of nowhere or try to shock her to death.</p><p>Those happened last week. Today is Monday and Ben has asked her to come with him to Hapes. There will be a meeting regarding expanding the First Order office branch in Hapes and about building a new and bigger factory there. Therefore, Rey wiped clean her tears from her face then got up to prepare herself today. There is no use crying over something that can never be changed. But she can go and create a new memory she may savour later in her life.</p><p> </p><p>…</p><p> </p><p>The First Order branch in Hapes is owned by a couple, Edward and Tania Miller. They’re a couple that has been married for 20 years. Now in their mid 40s, the couple wanted to have the First Order branch in Hapes with Tania Miller holding the president title of the Hapes branch, while her husband Edward Miller holding the vice president title of the Hapes branch. The couple welcomed Rey and Ben warmly. Now the four of them are sitting in Tania Miller’s office room, served with tea and little cakes.</p><p>While Ben and the Millers are busy conversing, Rey’s sight keep on drifting to a vase that was put in the middle of the table. It is an elegant vase painted with beautiful watercolour. From one glance, people will just assume it’s just an expensive, elegant vase, but Rey senses something ominous emitting from the vase..</p><p>“It’s a beautiful vase is it not?”</p><p>Rey looks up from the vase, finding Tania Miller staring and smiling at her. It took her a second to realise Mrs. Miller was talking to her.</p><p>“O-oh yes, yes it is a beautiful vase.”</p><p>Tania Miller smiles widely, “it’s a gift from my cousin. She said it is made from marble stone from Dathomir.”</p><p>“Oh.. that’s.. so far away.” Rey replies awkwardly. She sips on her tea cup, hoping Mrs. Miller will stop talking to her and instead join Ben and Mr. Miller’s conversation. All she knows about Dathomir is that it’s a very far away country. She knows nothing about the luxury or exquisite properties or location. </p><p>“Thank you for coming today Ben, I notice that you’re quite busy these days.” says Mrs. Miller after drinking from her cup of tea.</p><p>Thank the heavens, Rey thinks.</p><p>“Non-sense, this is a scheduled meeting Tania, and everything is already back in order ever since last month's vaganza.”</p><p>Rey hears Edward Miller chuckling, “what was that about Ben? I was a bit worried you’re gonna move the massive production to Hapes factory since it’s the second biggest after Takodana.”</p><p>“That’s exactly what this meeting will be about. Are all the managers ready for the meeting?”</p><p>“yes, yes they are.” Tania answered.</p><p>“Then let's get to it.”</p><p> </p><p>…</p><p> </p><p>Rey should be taking notes of the meeting. But she cannot concentrate. All of her thoughts are poured over a woman, what looks to be in traditional clothing, standing on the corner of the room, across from Rey.</p><p>Rey is currently sitting in one of the chairs that is surrounding a large, rectangular glass table with Ben at the head of the table facing a wall bathed with in-focus light to show a powerpoint presented by one of the managers in Hapes branch, and Rey is sitting on the far corner away from Ben, near the man that’s presenting right now.</p><p>Even when his voice is loud and clear next to Rey, all she can hear is her own heartbeat. All voices are tuned down, only the soft whispers of the working air condition in the room and sometime the sound of a pen scratching on a paper.</p><p>Rey, who was looking down at her empty note, slowly move her sight to the woman in the corner. Her breath silently hitches. The woman has been staring at her the entire time. Her sharp grey eyes sneers at Rey, as if greeting her, saying something along the line of ‘you gave up pretending not to notice me. I know you can see me.’</p><p>Ben, sitting at the head of the table with the Millers sitting on his sides, suddenly stood up. Mrs. Millers watches Ben curiously as he walks calmly and steadily to Rey at the other end of the table. Not paying any attention to the people in the room, now he’s standing behind Rey, he moves his hand towards the girl. To give off a clean and sophisticated look, Gwen had helped Rey to put her hair up in a loose bun, and because She’s wearing a low collared blouse, Ben’s hand grazes her neck slightly. He softly grazes his hand on Rey’s neck then he rests his hand there, near Rey’s neck.</p><p>Mrs. Miller, who have been watching Ben since he stood up, notices the exchange and spins her neck to look at her husband to see if he saw the exchange. Her husband gives her a knowing look.</p><p>“.. so it’ll take around 6 months for the preparation to complete then?” Ben asks the man that’s giving a presentation casually, not minding the eyes that’s staring at his knuckle that’s resting on Rey’s shoulder now.</p><p>The woman in traditional clothing dissolved into thin air. Rey blinks her eyes several times, and let go a breath she’s been holding. Then she look down to her hands that’s resting stiffly on her stomach. He knows.</p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>“What did you see?” Ben question her when the meeting is finished. Now they’re walking back to a car that will drive them to the airport. Ben and Rey took a private jet to reach Hapes to save time. It’ll take around 45 minutes to fly back to Coruscant.</p><p>“There was a woman wearing traditional clothing in the meeting room.” Rey answers as they get into the backseat of the car. Ben slammed his door shut.</p><p>“Does she seem evil? We should’ve stayed longer and found out what she wants.” Rey turns to look at Ben. His face is serious and worried. “Hold on.” Ben instructed the driver. Then he turns to look at Rey, waiting for her answer.</p><p>“I don’t know Ben.. she seems.. scary but then again there are a lot of scary ghosts.. are there any paranormal activities in the office?”</p><p>“Not that they tell me about that..” he hums, “I’ll ask Tania later about it. And if there is, you’ll solve this again, right?” His voice dropped an octave, and he moved closer to Rey. His face inches away from Rey. The driver on the front seat shyly look away from the car’s mirror. Rey only nodded her head at Ben.</p><p>“You can go.” Ben instructed the driver again.</p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>The roar of the private jet’s engine fills Rey’s ears when Ben leans closer to her.<br/>
“Before dropping you off at your place I’m planning to have dinner somewhere first, The Royale probably.” He said.</p><p>“I can’t go to dinner with you,”</p><p>“Why? You haven’t had dinner either. Just come. It’ll be on me.”</p><p>“I.. I have a dinner plan already.”</p><p>Ben who’s currently reading on the aviation magazine stops reading and look at Rey who’s sitting next to him, from the corner of his eyes.</p><p>“.. can I ask who you’ll go with?”</p><p>Ben notices Rey nervously pawing the edge of her sweater.</p><p>“I-it’s Armie.” Her voice so small Ben almost missed it, but he didn’t. He caught that.</p><p>A punch in the stomach. Ben feels like he’s sucked into a black hole filled with emptiness. He blinks several times and lowers his gaze from Rey’s face. He hums casually even when his heart is wrenching.</p><p>“Hm.. you and Armie I see.. it’s nice.” Ben clears his throat, “it’s nice.. nice. You and Armie.” He focuses his sight back to the magazine he’s holding but the words blurs.</p><p>Rey nervously swallowed a lump in her throat, “we’re not dating..” she says weakly.</p><p>“I have a feeling that you two will start dating without even realising it.” Ben clips.</p><p>“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rey turns to look at Ben. Ben caught her gaze, two dark hazel eyes staring at him hard, “Armie is nice. He’s been nothing but a gentleman for the past few weeks to me when everyone in the office have been treating me like I’m.. I’m a..”</p><p>“A what?” Ben looks up from his magazine again. Meeting Rey’s nervous gaze at him.</p><p>“A whore.” Her voice cracked, holding in her tears. She holds Ben’s gaze for a short moment before she looks away from him, afraid her tears will drop down her cheek in front of him.</p><p>Ben closes the magazine he was reading, and folds his arms on his lap, staring at Rey, “that’s nonsense. No one is treating you like that” his tone is perfectly calm yet with a tinge of annoyance and disbelief.</p><p>While Ben is staring her down, Rey’s ears suddenly ringing with what the staffs back at First Order are saying about her and Ben; <em> ‘I’m betting you, she spread her legs at night for Solo.’, ‘she’s not Stewart but I guess her services are through the roof. Why else would Solo recruit her in that undisclosed position?’, ‘what do you think Solo real kink is? Submissive woman? Rey kinda looks like it’, ‘the freaky one is always the quiet one, thus.. Rey Johnson. Solo is into freaky woman’. </em></p><p>“you don’t know because you’re never there.” She whispers, more to herself than to Ben.</p><p>“Did you say something?..”</p><p>The plane’s engine roar louder in Rey’s ears.</p><p>“No.”</p><p>And that’s that, the only conversation between Solo and Johnson in the airplane.  The rest of the plane ride filled with tense silence between the two.</p><p>When they touches down in Coruscant it’s 9pm and the sky is already dark. Armie and Rey promised to come around 9pm to the japanese restaurant. Rey remember getting herself into one of Ben’s cars, a white range rover and sitting in the back of the car with Ben next to her and Mitaka driving. Suddenly, she feels an unbearable urge to fall asleep right then and there, not having any energy left to keep her eyes open or to held her head. Is this what jet lag feels like? Rey idly think before everything blurs and she fell asleep with her last sight is on Ben, looking out the window with what looks to be a troubled look on his face.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>hii.. sorry for the late update. Things happened to me the past two weeks and I was actually thinking to stop writing this fic but tbfh writing this fic is my only escape in this fucking pandemic *sigh* I hope you're all safe &amp; okay xx</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. The Woman in Black</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>so.. when I start writing for this I only have a gist of what I want to write and I just thought that I'll find things along the way... this is it. The things I found along the way.. I hope you guys like it.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The sushi tastes so fine, yet it worsen Armitage’s mood. Rey is supposed to taste it together with him. They’ve talked about the famous sushi since last week and have been planning for this dinner since last week too. Ben already made his work life hard, must he make his love life hard too? Ben called Armitage at 9.45, saying Rey can’t come to the dinner because of an emergency at Hapes, they have to spend more time there than the calculated time.</p><p>Armitage likes Rey. She’s a warm person, quirky yes, but that’s the thing about her that makes her attractive.</p><p>Armitage bite off his shrimp tempura aggressively after dipping it in soy sauce. Again, it tastes so good Rey should’ve been here with him. Armitage exhaled loudly and moved his gaze to the table in front him. He stopped chewing immediately. A woman with striking platinum blonde hair with a pair of piercing blue eyes that’s sitting two tables away from him caught his gaze. The woman stops her chopstick that’s holding a sushi in mid air while her mouth half open about to savour the sushi. One of her eyebrows raised.</p><p>“Mr. Hux?”</p><p>Mirroring the woman, one of Armitage’s eyebrows raised at the sight of his junior eating alone, “Christie?” </p><p> </p><p>…</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> What the hell was I thinking? </em>
</p><p>Ben walks around his living room with his left hand on his hips and right hand trying to tear off his hair from his head. Rey had fallen asleep on his shoulder while they’re on the way to drive her back to her apartment. On a whim, Ben ordered Mitaka to drive to his penthouse instead. He had carried the sleeping girl up into his penthouse and into the guest room, passing several staff on his way. Thankfully none of them batted an eyelash at him and the soundly sleeping girl in his arms.</p><p>Ben and Rey had arrived at his penthouse around 9.45, and he just remembered then that Rey have a dinner plan with Armie at 9. After he created a scenario inside his head, he called Armie and told him that Rey is unable to come because they’re being held longer than the calculated time at Hapes.</p><p>Ben is sweating cold sweat right now. Why would he do that? Sabotaging his best friend. All he knows is that when Rey fell asleep with her head on his shoulder, a gut feeling told him that he doesn’t want anyone else to see her face like this but him. Her soundly sleeping face. She had felt so fragile and delicate, Ben doesn’t trust anyone not to hurt her and Armitage has a bit of a reputation for it.</p><p>Now he’s sitting on the sofa with his head angled, staring hard at the door of the guest bedroom where she’s sleeping inside not knowing the distress she caused within him.</p><p>
  <em> Johnson.. What have you done to me? </em>
</p><p> </p><p>…</p><p> </p><p>Rey awoke with the feel of a soft blanket on her cheek and the smell of a freshly washed and cleaned bed cover. The bed feels too.. Soft, too good to be hers. And the room smells too clean too.</p><p>Rey slowly open her eyes.</p><p>The moment she takes in her surroundings, Rey bolt up and throw the blanket off of her body. Her heart beating loud and her ears ringing, <em> this is not my room!</em> She jump off of the bed and awkwardly stand in the middle of the room. Rey idly identified the soft carpet underneath her feet.</p><p>The room is painted in white. There’s a small glass chandelier in the middle of the room. The bed is way bigger than hers back in her apartment, with four, no, five fluffy pillows, and a thick blanket draped on the bed. The covers of the bed, the pillows and the blanket are all in white too. There’s a vanity table near a door with a matching chair next to it. Rey walk backward without realising it and her body bump into a floor to ceiling curtain. She turns and quickly pull the curtain aside to see what’s waiting for her outside the unknown room she’s in.</p><p>She’s still in Coruscant, that's what she knows. She’s so high up in the building she can recognise First Order’s tall building.</p><p>
  <em> Where am I?.. </em>
</p><p>The last thing she remembered last night was getting into Ben’s car.</p><p>
  <em> It must've be morning now..</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Armie! </em>
</p><p>Rey hastily run around the room, eyes searching for her tote bag. She found it sitting on a bedside table on the side of the bed she slept in. She found her phone and quickly check the notification. There are three missed calls from Armie and 7 text messages from him. There’s two messages from Gwen too. Rey quickly read Armie’s messages.</p><p><em> What? Held off at Hapes?</em> Rey confusedly think after reading all of Armie’s messages.</p><p>While her brain is running a hundred miles an hour, her ears caught the sound of what seems to be a coffee machine. Rey’s eyes locked at the door in the room. She gathered her courage and then she open the door.</p><p>The hall is dimly lit and empty. She’s in a.. Penthouse? Whose?</p><p>“Oh hey, there you are. Good morning.”</p><p>Rey squeaks and jerks back to the nearest wall. On her left, Ben stood behind a marble island sipping from a blue glass. He’s dressed immaculately with a white shirt and black slacks. A blazer is draped on one of the chairs surrounding the island.</p><p>“It’s 8 past 5. You should hurry have breakfast and take a shower if you want to come with me to the office.” he says casually.</p><p>“Where am I?” Rey squeaks.</p><p>“You’re in my son’s apartment.” Han Solo the Ghost suddenly comes out of a wall next to her. Rey screams her head off causing Ben to spill his coffee from the glass he’s holding. Not bothering the hotness of the coffee on his arm, he put his glass down on the island and walk over to Rey. He’s worried there’s a ghost scaring her.</p><p>“Goddamn it Han!” Rey yells. Ben awkwardly stops a few feet away from Rey.</p><p>“Oh.. is my dad here?”</p><p>Rey calms down her breathing and turns her head to look at Han Solo the Ghost next to her that’s giggling away.</p><p>“Your father just scares me to death Ben! He just came out of the wall..”</p><p>“I don’t even have to try hard to scare you kid,” Han says, cackling.</p><p> </p><p>…</p><p> </p><p>Simon, Matthew, and Zori were casually conversing on the corner of the hall outside high managers’ private office when the trio saw Ben and Rey walking in. They hurriedly turn on their back.</p><p>“Please don’t do that again.” Rey’s voice rings softly in the high managers’ office corridor. It is still new to them but they know that it’s Rey.</p><p>“Sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking.” the deep, honeyed voice they are no stranger to that belongs to Ben speaks back.</p><p>“Remember what you said, you'll let me use your body and I'll let you use my skill.. therefore I still can go out with whoever I want.”</p><p>Matthew’s mouth pops open without a sound. Zori gestured at him to stay silent while Simon’s eyes widened.</p><p>“Ben's b  o  d  y?” Matthew’s mouth moves quietly. Zori and Simon stay quiet like burglars trying to rob a house.</p><p>“I know what I said. I’m sorry for what happened last night. I just..” Ben went quiet a moment before he continued, “a decision I made on a whim.”</p><p>“It’s okay.. I just.. Feel bad at Armie now.”</p><p>Simon’s jaw dropped, “H  u  x ?” his mouth moves soundlessly.</p><p>Zori gestures her hands at her head to create a ‘mind blown’ gesture. Matthew covers his mouth with his hand.</p><p>“It’s okay, don't mind him, he already went so much worse than that.”</p><p>Rey hums, “still..”</p><p>“Well.. I’ll see you at lunch, okay? Tania should already reply to my email by then.”</p><p>“Okay..”</p><p>They hear the sound of her shoes walking away.</p><p>“Rey,” Ben calls out to her, the sound stops. “you’re having lunch with me, okay?”</p><p>Rey sighs, “Yes Ben”.</p><p>With that they hear Ben’s door closing first and then followed by Rey’s door.</p><p>“What the fuck?” whispers Matthew.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Gwen sat down on the chair in her cubicle. Her head still swimming from her hangover for last night she and Hux had ordered a few bottles of sake, a Japanese alcohol. She’s pretty hammered now. Who would’ve thought that the prim and proper Armitage Hux knows how to let loose?</p><p>After a about 7 shots of sake, Armitage said to Gwen the reason that he’s eating alone that evening is because Rey is unable to come to their planned dinner date because Solo holding her off at Hapes. He’d said all that with a slurred speech, the sake already taking control most of his brain. If he’s sober, Gwen a 100% sure he won’t tell her any of it.</p><p>Gwen knows that Hux has been trying to hook Rey in. But the girl is too green to notice, she plainly thought that he’s a nice friend. <em> Poor Hux,</em> Gwen idly think as she drink from her water bottle.</p><p>
  <em> By the way, where the hell is Johnson?</em>
</p><p>Gwen came in staggering into their apartment last night, half hoping Rey is already inside to help her with the pounding headache that’s drilling her head last night. She’d called Rey a few times but she didn’t answer. When Gwen checked her bedroom after gathering an immense energy to get up and walk there, the bed is still made and empty. Solo must be working the poor girl like a damn horse, Gwen think again as she put down her water bottle. For she knows that it was already around 12am, yet Rey is not even home yet.</p><p>Surprisingly, in the morning when Gwen called for Rey again and still with no answer, when she checked Rey’s bedroom, the bed is still empty and untouched. Which is so unlike Rey. The girl will go home no matter how late, and at the very least she usually text Gwen if she’ll come home late or even if she’s not coming home usually at a sleepover with her best friend Rose.</p><p>Gwen texted Rey to make sure if she’s okay but still no answer.</p><p>The clock struck 9.40 when the girl in question strode in with her boss walking next to her.</p><p>Most of the staff in the room notice them walking in, trying to cover up their curiosity poorly.</p><p>Gwen waited for a good five minutes before deciding to come to Rey’s office. Gwen isn’t thick, she knows what the other staff in First Order are talking about her. But Gwen knows Rey, she is not that kind of girl. Gwen feels very protective of her somehow but at the same time she knows that she can’t really protect Rey all the time, the girl must learn how to stand up for herself if she want to survive in this world. Gwen can be the shoulder whenever she needs someone to lean on.</p><p>Gwen knocks on Rey’s door. Gwen can hear a bit of a shuffling inside before Rey speaks, “come in!”.</p><p>Inside what was used to be documents room is now cleared of all old boxes and racks. The room is now clean and pleasant.</p><p>“Hey.. I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” says Gwen as she closes the door behind her.</p><p>Rey stood from her chair behind the desk when she sees Gwen walk in.<br/>
“Not at all Gwen, h-how can I help you?”</p><p>Gwen stopped right in front of the desk. There’s no chair in front of the desk, but there’s two small dark grey couches on the far side of the room.<br/>
“Oh nothing, I was just checking on you.. you didn’t come home last night and you didn’t reply my message, just.. want to make sure you’re okay.”</p><p>“Oh! I-i’m so so sorry, I-I forgot to text back.. Im okay though, thank you for checking on me” Rey nervously paws at her cardigan. Gwen starting to notice her quirks. When Rey is nervous she’ll start pawing at her clothes..</p><p>“Where.. were you last night?” She knows damn well it isn’t her business but what’s the harm in asking?</p><p>Rey blinks. Her expression went blank for a moment before she nervously swallow and look down to her desk.<br/>
“I.. uh.. I..”</p><p>Gwen stood rooted on the spot. The rumours about Rey and Ben that’s swirling around the office came back into Gwen’s head.</p><p>
  <em> Do they..? Did They? </em>
</p><p>“Rey, I want you to know that I care for you.” Gwen says. Rey looks up to meet Gwen’s gaze. Rey nervously nod at the other woman.<br/>
“I don’t want to pretend I didn’t hear anything about you. I do know. I know what they’re all saying. That’s why I’m here. I don’t want to pressure you to tell me anything about it, but just.. a few minutes ago when you walked in with Mr. Solo, coming in late on top of that, there will be even more vicious rumours going around later. Please be careful with who you’re going out with, who you’re having lunch with..” Gwen stops to take a breath and see Rey’s reaction. Rey’s eyes gleam with unshed tears. The brunette only nodded her head at Gwen. Gwen nervously swallowed a lump in her throat. Did she just crossed a line?</p><p>“O-Okay.. I just want to let you know that.”</p><p>Gwen gave Rey one small smile before she turn to walk back to her cubicle, but then Rey call out to her, “Gwen,” her voice so small Gwen almost missed it. Gwen turns.</p><p>“Thank you.. I really appreciate it. A-also, it’s not true. What they’re saying about me and Ben is not true.”</p><p>Gwen smiles again. Rey is a private person, that much Gwen knows. So when the girl tell Gwen that, she highly appreciate it. “I know.” With that, Gwen closes the door in Rey’s office.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Right after the door closes, a gust of wind suddenly came into the room. A gust of grey fog swirling around near the door, it start shaping into a woman. Rey stood rooted to the floor.</p><p>
  <em>No..</em>
</p><p>When the fog clears, a woman dressed in all black came into view. Her skin white as a snow contrasting with her hair that’s wet and greasy that is the colour of the night sky without the moon.</p><p>
  <em>Please.. no..</em>
</p><p>Her small face pale and thin, cheek bones jutting out from her skin, small and sharp nose, small almond shaped eyes, peeking from the curtain of her long jet black hair.</p><p>Everything went into a standstill. The clock on the wall slowing down until it stops with the minute hand stopping at number 3. The air conditioner went silent as if the power went out yet the room feels colder than ever. Rey’s shoulder sag with the sudden heaviness resting on it.</p><p>It’s the woman in the vase.</p><p>Rey cannot move her body. Her gaze is locked on the woman in front of the door. The longer she stares at the woman the more Rey realises that it’s a different woman. Yet.. this woman and the other woman that she saw in Hapes look similar. The only difference is the clothes. The ghost that Rey saw in Hapes was wearing traditional clothing, this one Rey isn’t sure what to call them, black maxi dress? it looks old and worn out. There’s a thick black belt around her thin hips with two long daggers on each side.</p><p>
  <em>Sisters?</em>
</p><p>The woman in black sneers. Her pale, thin lips showing little greying, crooked teeth. Her eyes is throwing Rey off. They’re not grey like what ghosts supposed to have, they’re black. She’s not a ghost.</p><p>
  <em>What is she..?</em>
</p><p>“Feigr is right.. you’re strong.” The woman in black whispers. Her voice is soft as a silk, it sounds as bleak as a wind just before the storm.<br/>
“We’ll be seeing you soon..” The woman whispers again before she dissolved into thin air.</p><p>As soon as the woman in black is gone, Rey’s legs gave out and she fell down to the floor, missing an inch from her cushioned seat. Her breathing is laboured, her chest feels tight. The image of the two women keep replaying inside her head. Rey instantly knows that they’re sisters. The woman in black said a name.. Feigr? That must be the name of the woman in traditional clothing yesterday.</p><p>
  <em>They’re no ordinary ghosts.. who are they?</em>
</p><p>Rey’s heartbeat picks up. Her thoughts jumbled but she think she’s sure she just ran into something she shouldn’t have. Rey got up from her position on the floor, her legs walking fast heading to Ben’s office.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>People should not intimidate Snoke like this. He is Alexander Snoke, the senator of Coruscant. People bow to him, not him bowing to people. But the old man that stood in front of Snoke is making him shaking to the bone. The man, even when he’s old and looks like a toe stub away from death, oozes with authority and power that Snoke never seen before.</p><p>Snoke had read all the reports that came from Agent 7. The unknown woman is Rey Johnson. There are several reports going around in Jakku that the girl is troubled. After sending another agent to jakku for a three day research, the dispatched agent told Snoke that the girl has a unique ability to talk and see the dead. As much as it makes his ears bleed by hearing it, Snoke wanted to take precautionary steps. Therefore, he contacted his cronies wether they know anything about connection to the otherworldly beings. One of his friend suggested this old man that’s currently standing in front of him.</p><p>“Mr. Senator, it’s a pleasure.” The old man spoke.</p><p>“The pleasure is mine Palpatine, Mr. Canady told me many great things about you.” Snoke speaks back to the old man nervously. Canady had told Snoke that if he ever deal or meet himself with things from the afterlife or the underworld to reach out to this old man known as Palpatine, known for his immense spiritual power. There are rumours going around that he has ‘demon servants’ who does all of the job for him. This is all very new to Snoke, he doesn’t know whether to believe the man or not. But since he trust Canady, he thought he’ll give it a try and see what happens then.</p><p>Snoke jetted from Coruscant to Dathomir with his preatorian guards to the place where he was told Palpatine will be. Snoke is instructed to go to this mountain somewhere in the wild jungle of Dathomir where there’s a long stair under the mountain, that’s instead of going up to the mountain it’s going down. The stairs going down for so long it made Snoke thought the man live inside the earth’s core.</p><p>Snoke had went inside the jungle with a jeep car, then after a few hundred meters from the mountain he and his guards is forced to walk down the small path under the mountain to reach the stairs going down. Wild trees on his left and right, with the moonlight hardly touching the ground because the jungle is densely packed with big trees.</p><p><em> This better be worth my effort,</em> Snoke bitterly thought.</p><p>Now he’s standing on a black stone floor, with the man that Canady told him dressed in black cloak standing in front of Snoke holding what looks to be a wooden cane with a big silver hook at its head. From the slight lightning from the torches that are circling him and Palpatine, Snoke can see the hook is carved in runes.</p><p>“How can I help you Mr. Senator?”</p><p>Snoke curses Palpatine’s guards that’s holding his guards up under the mountain. He’s told that no one but Snoke can come and talk to Palpatine.</p><p>“There’s a boy I want to keep tabs on. I killed his father years ago and I don’t want him to get a sniff about it.”</p><p>“Just that? I can do so much more than that Mr. Senator.” Palpatine sneered.</p><p>The hair on Snoke’s back standing up. There’s a punch of freight in his stomach. Something tells him this old man in front of him is the real deal.</p><p>“For now.” Snoke says.</p><p>“I see.. But for me to be able to help you, I need you to find the nightsisters Mr. Senator.”</p><p>“Night.. sisters?”</p><p>“The fallen disir. They’re cursed and bound to an ancient vase that was taken from here a long time ago. Find it. Only then I’ll help you with your problem.”</p><p><em> Fallen disir? What is that?</em> Snoke fleetingly think.</p><p>Snoke’s heart fell, he thought he can see Palpatine in action right away. He paid a big amount of money for a meeting with him and now the old man want to find him a damn vase?</p><p>“But Palpatine.. There’s, There’s so many vases how will I know which one it is?”</p><p>“My servant will tell you all the information you need to find it”.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Ben was just finished reading Tania Miller’s email when Rey burst into his office with laboured breathing and her face pale as a corpse. Rey shut the door behind her abruptly.</p><p>“Rey? What’s wrong?”</p><p>“The vase!” Her panic just heightened.</p><p>“Hey hey, calm down, I’m here” Ben’s voice a complete opposite from her, is very calm. Ben quickly stood up and hold Rey’s arm. Her other arm came on top of his while his other “What.. what did you see?”</p><p>“The vase Ben!”</p><p>“Tania just replied to my email, she said nothing strange happened at the office, you can calm down now.” Ben can see beads of perspiration on Rey’s forehead and Ben notices that her skin is as cold as an ice. “W-why are you so cold?”</p><p>“There’s something dangerous residing in the vase, w-we have to take it away,”</p><p>“No no, Tania said nothing happened..”</p><p>“No! Listen!” Rey jabs Ben Ben’s chest with her index finger with the arm that Ben didn’t hold, “They’re no ordinary ghosts, they’re.. they’re something I’ve never met before, they’re no ghosts Ben and they’re so foul and dangerous I can feel it! I just know, we have to take the vase away somewhere!” Rey said through her laboured breathing. Her heart still beating fast.</p><p>“Hey! Calm down your breathing, you’re okay, I’m here, okay?” Ben lean in closer to  Rey with the glass table in the middle of them. Ben’s palms come up to cradle Rey’s face. Her face feels so fragile and tiny in his palms. His thumbs gently grazing the skin under her eyes.</p><p>Rey’s unfocused eyes start focusing on the other pair of hazel eyes that’s inches away from hers. Rey can feel her heartbeat went down and her breathing back to normal.</p><p>“There we go.. that’s much better..” Ben whispers.</p><p><em> What is this feeling?</em>. Ben blinks.</p><p>As if he just got stung by a bee, Ben quickly pull back his arms away from Rey and stood ramrod straight. He clears his voice awkwardly, “uh so, the vase? Tania said nothing weird happened so maybe we can take that as a good sign, yes?” Ben saw the quick expression of her face in a daze before it turns to a worried expression again.</p><p>“We need to get the vase away somewhere safe where no one can use it.”</p><p>“Okay, okay, I’ll ask her if we can borrow it for some time. Calm down, I’ll make sure everything is okay.”</p><p>“Promise?” Her eyes wide and begging at Ben.</p><p>He swallowed a lump in his throat, “I promise.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>sooo.. yep. I just added a touch of Norse Mythology in this fic because I LOVE Norse Mythology.</p><p>disir: <a href="https://norse-mythology.org/disir/">disir</a></p><p>basically disir are good female ancestors spirits bc it 'protects, etc' that's why I thought I'll use "fallen disir" *smirks* I'll tell their stories in the next chapter.</p><p>thank you for reading this garbage! xo</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. The Cursed Vase</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hi.. yep. Fast update because I received even more enlightenment for this fic.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After lunch, Tania Miller was working at her desk in her private office when the calls came in. Tania owns two phones; the black one is for business where she gives off her number to all the partners, some staffs, and clients. The white one is for family and friends, where no one knows the number except for her family and friends. For the past three hours the black one has been ringing from a number she didn’t recognize. When Tania didn’t pick it up when the 3rd call ended, she decided to picked up the 4th call.</p><p>Weird. She didn’t put her vase in an auction, but the caller who said to be the assistant to senator Alexander Snoke, admitted that there’s a luxury vase auction in Coruscant and that the senator would love to buy her vase. Tania kindly refused of course. She said there must’ve been a mistake because she don’t want to sell the vase. The vase was given to her from her now deceased cousin and she intends to take good care of the vase.</p><p>She had kindly ended the conversation.</p><p>But then the woman kept calling her. Tania ignored the 5th and the 6th call. Right now her phone is ringing again. Making up her mind, Tania decided to pick up the call and end it for good after.</p><p>“Mrs. Miller, we’re very sorry to disturb you but the senator is really interested in your vase..”</p><p>“As I said in the last call that I picked up, the vase is not for sale! My deceased cousin gave it to me and I intend to take good care of it! Now if you please stop calling my -”</p><p>“Name your price Mrs. Miller.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“The senator will buy your vase no matter what the price is, so name it.”</p><p>“Once again, the vase is NOT for sale. Good day madam, I’m blocking your number.” with that Tania ended the call and blocked the number from her phone.</p><p>As the day draws on, with all the works from the new project that Ben agreed on yesterday, Tania is chained to her desk until 11 in the evening. She got up from her seat and stretched around meaning to go home. Tania walks across the room and then stops her steps at the room where she welcomed Ben yesterday. She turns her head and her sight landed on the vase that’s still sitting at the top of the coffee table.</p><p> <em> I’m not gonna sell you no matter the price,</em> Tania idly think. <em> Maybe when I fall poor and my stocks or other savings won’t save me and my husband. </em> </p><p>Right in front of her, just a few feet away is a wooden double door that will lead to the open corridor to the cubicles where most of the staff are probably already home by now. When Tania was about to resume her walk and turn back her head, she caught a movement in the corner of her eye. She whipped her head fast to look at what’s in front of her.</p><p>What she’s seeing terrify her to the bone. In front of her stood three unrecognizable women. Tania didn’t hear them walking in or the sound of the door opening, but here they are. Tania had turned off all the lights in her office except for the standing lamp at the corner of the room. The poorly lightened room made it difficult to discern their faces but Tania can see the sinister look on their face. The women are all tall and skinny with skin as pale as a corpse.</p><p>“w-What are you all doing in here?”</p><p>The middle one with grey hair smiles at Tania.<br/>
“It was a good time Tania. Thank you.” the middle one says as her lips tugging to form a sneer.</p><p>“Make it quick Revna.” the one to the right speak. Her tone was short and clipped.</p><p>The one to the left moving both of her hands and Tania’s eyes is quickly darted to the long daggers that are slipping out of its scabbards that’s on the either side of the woman’s hips. “Don’t worry, this will be quick”, the woman to the left now holding two long daggers in each of her hands.</p><p>In the blink of an eye, Tania suddenly feels lightheaded. She feels like she’s losing control over her body and her consciousness is slipping away from her slowly. When her head fell down to the floor, she blinked several times to discern what just happen, but she failed to understand as her vision suddenly darkened until blackness entirely swallowed her vision.</p><p> </p><p>…</p><p> </p><p>“.. so then I thought we’ll go to Alderaan on Friday after work, go to Chewie’s shop, investigate around then leave at the latest on Sunday afternoon” Ben says to Rey. They’re currently sitting on the couches in Ben’s office at 11 in the afternoon. After putting it on pause for several weeks, Ben has decided to finally start their investigation about Han’s accident. Ben planned to go to Alderaan along with Rey to Chewie’s shop and probably visit his mother. Probably. Ben was about to ask Rey if she’d be okay if they visit his mother in Alderaan when Mitaka suddenly burst into the room.</p><p>Ben’s mouth that’s already half opened, froze when he sees Mitaka’s face. He quickly put aside his question for Rey later.</p><p>“S-sir, Mrs. Miller is dead.”</p><p>Mitaka’s voice shook but it was no mistake what Ben and Rey heard from him. Ben’s head that’s filled with planned things to do when he and Rey go to Alderaan emptied itself after he heard Mitaka speak. Rey’s head whipped fast at Ben, “the vase! I told you to get the vase!” Her tone accusing Ben that’s sitting right across from her. Her brows furrowed, her face pale and Ben can clearly see the freight written on her face. Rey feels her heartbeat beating fast again, just like yesterday when she saw a woman in all black.</p><p>“Calm down, let's hear this first” He turns to Mitaka, “can you elaborate?” His tone is annoyed.</p><p>“H-her body was found this morning around 7am sir, when a janitor came into her office room to clean”</p><p>“Who told you this? And what about the motive?”</p><p>“Mr. Miller’s assistant called, he’s the one that told me all about it and asked for me to deliver the news to you. He said Mr. Miller is in mourning and will probably miss out on this week's conference call. As for the motive.. the police are still looking at it, but Mr. Miller’s assistant said they’re suspecting that it’s a robbery.”</p><p>“Robbery?” Rey squeaks. Her head suddenly feels dizzy.</p><p>Mitaka turns to Rey. He nods his head with the most grim expression she’s ever seen on his face, “yes Rey.. but as I said, the police are still looking at it. Their best guess is robbery but the only thing that’s missing from Mrs. Miller’s office is her precious antique vase.”</p><p>Ben and Rey’s body went still. Rey can feel her blood turn cold at the mention of the vase.</p><p> <em> The vase is taken?</em> </p><p>Rey’s gaze hardened at Mitaka, the bearer of the news.</p><p>I should’ve known. I could’ve prevented this from happening to Mrs. Miller.</p><p>A thousand possibilities buzzing inside Rey’s head. <em> Is it a real burglary? Maybe the burglars know that it’s an expensive Dathomirrian Vase but they don’t know what’s inside that vase? </em></p><p><em> what’s inside the vase? Surely a ghost can’t hurt a human. Possessing yes. But they can’t actually inflict serious bodily harm without prior antagonizing the victim. But Mrs. Miller seemed healthy and happy yesterday.. </em>. Rey sensed nothing ominous or evil from Mrs. Miller, but the vase.. Rey mentally curses herself for not knowing more about stuffs like this. If she want to be a real help to other people around her, she need to start studying more.</p><p>“Mitaka, can you look for the detective that’s working on the scene? I need to have a chat with him.” Ben says.</p><p>“Yes sir, I’ll find out right away.” Mitaka then turn away and head out of Ben’s office. As soon as the door is closed, Ben turns to Rey.</p><p>“Rey.. listen,”</p><p>“No! You should’ve listened! I told you the vase is dangerous but you don’t trust me!”</p><p>“I do! I trust you! I was busy yesterday, I forgot to call Tania about the vase! I’m sorry okay?”</p><p>“Tell that to her ghost.” Rey mumbles under her breath, distressed, but Ben catches that, his jaw shut tight. Her ghost. Tania’s dead now.</p><p>“.. Can you call her here?”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Tania’s a ghost now right? Can you call her here and ask her who killed her?”</p><p>Rey nervously shifts in her seat, “i-I.. I don’t know how to do that.” She says as she looks down to her shoes. “I don’t know how to call her..”</p><p>Ben looks at the girl that’s shyly looking down to her shoes.</p><p>“Okay.. That’s alright.” He said reassuringly. “I’ll just talk to the detective, ask if he found anything about the killer.” he said calmly even when his heart is beating crazy. He doesn’t know what he’s gotten himself into. All this ghosts and spirits that suddenly bursting in into his life kinda fucking his brain inside out. He feels as if he’s riding a bullet train that’s keeping him tied to the seat and he feels like he wants to stop the whole thing to give him some time to understand and process everything. But the train just keeps on going fast, not giving him any time or moment to catch or understand what’s really going on in his life now.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Detective Cassian Andor is circling the office room where Tania Miller was found dead on the floor by a janitor at 7.10 am. Miller was killed by a very sharp knife that much he knows. But the motive is still questionable. The only thing that’s missing is Miller’s vase. Her assistant said the vase is an antique one given to her from her cousin on the day of her marriage to Edward Miller. This makes the Millers to have possession over the vase for 25 years, so why taking it now?</p><p>Moreover, if the motive is burglary, why not as well take the $31,000 watch from Tania’s wrist? or her jewelries or her $21,000 crocodile skin tote bag where there’s a key to her Porsche inside. All of it remain intact. Her purse was found next to her cold dead body with the Porsche’s key and a wallet with $200 inside while Miller’s expensive watch and jewelries are still attached to her body. Cassian wonders how much the vase cost. If it’s antique maybe above one million?</p><p>Cassian had ruled out the motive suicide since there’s no sharp object near the body or the room.</p><p>The other suspected motive is revenge, either jealousy or business competition. Although Tania and Edward Miller were known to be socially well liked by their friends and peers. Because of the childless marriage, the Millers spent their time a lot connecting to their friends by going to events and gatherings. But to make sure of this motive, Cassian will have to question people that the Millers had met for the past week or so. Cassian’s head hurt by thinking of all of the people he has to question later.</p><p>After the 4th clean swipe with his eyes around the office, Cassian walks back to the spot where Tania’s body lay three hours ago before the forensic team moved her body to a gurney and then haul her up into the ambulance to whisk her away to the nearest hospital for further inspection.</p><p>The pool of blood that spilled on the floor was so wide that the field team that arrived first on the scene had to wait for the blood to be cleaned first from the floor for them to safely walk around the body. Cassian still remember the slit on Tania’s throat. The slit that almost cut off her head from her shoulder. The carotid arteries in her neck is cleanly severed with what seems to be a very sharp object. Judging from the blood that spilled on the floor and the neck that’s almost cut off from her shoulder, the forensic team said that Tania Miller’s death is most likely from a blood loss. But for further information Cassian has to wait for the complete report from the forensic team.</p><p>Cassian suspected that the perpetrator is likely still bringing the weapon with him or her, for there’s no weapon or basically anything that’s sharp enough to slit a human’s throat in the office room or the whole building. The police have searched the whole building since arriving at 7.25 Am for any related evidence but the search had gone for naught. They don’t even know if there’s one, two, or more perpetrators. There’s no unregistered car/s that parked in the office parking lot last night, the cctv footage showed no signs of it being tempered with, showed no unusual activity or stranger in the building at the time of the incident, everything is as normal as it usually was. Clean &amp; neat.</p><p>Cassian starts to think that this is the job of a very detailed professional: a hired professional assassin. The million dollar question now is, who would want to send a pro to kill a harmless 46 year old woman?</p><p>“This will be all over the afternoon news,” Cassian grumbles under his breath.</p><p>As he got up from his crouched position on the floor inspecting every little scratch on the floor, Cassian’s assistant Jyn Erso came into the room with the list of people that the Millers had met a week prior.</p><p>“Sir, there are approximately 25 people the Millers had a close encounter with for the past week.”</p><p>“The most recent?”</p><p>“That will be First Order’s CEO Ben Solo and Rey Johnson from Coruscant. The Millers, Solo, and Johnson had a meeting yesterday here at First Order’s Hapes Office Branch. Also, Ben Solo’s assistant called a few minutes ago, he said Solo wanted to have a chat with you regarding this incident.”</p><p>Cassian’s body tensed, “Chat?”.</p><p>“He has questions. Turns out yesterday Solo signed a plan to build a new factory here in Hapes that’s costing the company around $75million dollars..”</p><p>Cassian sighed, “Well, him and Johnson are on the list, yes? Tell his assistant we’ll contact him when we’ve arranged the time after we’ve made the questions.”</p><p>One of the men from the field team suddenly approaches Cassian, one of his hand is holding two clear sealed plastic bags with a black iPhone and white iPhone in each of the bags.</p><p>“Andor, I thought you might want to hear this.” the man says as he eyes Jyn warrily. Receiving the signal, Jyn walks out of the office to start sketching the questions to ask the 25 unlucky people they’ll have to question later.</p><p>Cassian turns at the man and raises an eyebrow at him.</p><p>“As told by the victim’s husband, Miller owned two phones, white for family and friends, black for business. We’ve already asked the phone company to break the passcodes in both phones and so far we’ve found that in the business phone there are several missed calls from a number that’s unregistered in the victim’s phonebook” the man’s voice hushed.</p><p>“Unregistered? Did you find out who the caller is?”</p><p>The man looks around the room warrily. His face suddenly turns grim and his voice drops an octave, “you won’t like this Andor,” he says as he moves closer to whisper into Cassian’s ear. </p><p>As soon as he finishes, the skin on Cassian’s back suddenly crawls. This is gonna be harder than he thought it’ll be.</p><p>Cassian looks around the room to make sure no one hears what the man just told him. There’s only three men in the room beside him and the man from the field team and they’re all supposed to be too far away to be able to listen to the whisper. “Who else knows about this?” Cassian asks the man, his voice a soft whisper.</p><p>“Me, my junior that went through the phone and now you. Just the three of us.” the other man whispers back.</p><p>“Alright. Keep it tight. I don’t want to bring the gillette down to our necks.”</p><p> </p><p>…</p><p> </p><p>Bazine was enjoying her sandwich at the nearest deli from the government office when the news popped up on the television. Not wanting the news to be missed out on, she runs in her black stilettos as fast as she could from the deli to the government building heading to Snoke’s office. She ignored the looks from the ladies and whistles from the guys and focuses on staying on her toes and moving them as fast as she can in the stupid heels she decided to wear that morning.</p><p>As soon as she arrived in front of Snoke’s office room, his guards prevented her from coming in. Bazine knows that Snoke is currently inside having lunch with the Chief of Justice of the supreme court.</p><p>“This is an emergency.” she says with a clipped tone switching her hardened look from one guard to the other.</p><p>“Snoke had ordered us not to let anyone pass through the door while the Chief of Justice is still inside.”</p><p>Bazine glanced at the guards annoyed. </p><p>“If I don’t come in any second now, the two of you will lose your head before today’s sunset” she said through gritted teeth.</p><p>The guards then look at each other warily. One of the guards visibly swallowed a lump in their throat. Their eyes and mouths are moving in a way that Bazine can tell they’re nervous. The two guards that’s currently standing between Bazine and the double door’s knobs start moving away to their respective positions before Bazine comes, each on the far side of the door’s hinges.</p><p>Bazine pushed one of the doors open without waiting any longer.</p><p>As soon as she’s inside the room, with couches and a big coffee table in the middle of the room, Snoke look up from his coffee and the Chief of Justice that’s sitting in front of him turns on his back to look at the direction of the door. Bazine immediately caught the look of fury on Snoke’s face.</p><p>“The news, sir.” Bazine says with a clipped tone.</p><p>The fury on Snoke’s face suddenly dissipates. He quickly got up from his seat to take the tv’s remote control on his glass desk and turned on the device. The news that Bazine previously watched in the deli quickly came on the screen. The Chief of Justice stares at Snoke then at Bazine with confusion written on his face.</p><p>“SIR! SIR! IS IT TRUE THAT NO EVIDENCE WAS FOUND IN THE ROOM?”</p><p>A man with a classic brown fedora hat is walking down the stairs in front of First Order’s office branch in Hapes calmly. The man has dark brown hair and a 5 o’clock beard framing his face.</p><p>“SIR! DO YOU THINK THE MURDER IS CONNECTED TO THE CAMPAIGN THAT WILL START IN TWO MONTHS TIME?”</p><p>Snoke flinched.</p><p>“DO YOU HAVE THE SUSPECTED MOTIVE OF THE MURDER SIR?”</p><p>The man visibly sighed at the cameras and microphones that are being pushed to his face. One microphone nearly punched him in one of his eyes.<br/>
“We are still waiting for the result from the forensic team. I don’t want to answer the questions I don’t know the answer to alright? Now if you please I just want to have my lunch,”</p><p>“BUT YOU’RE HAPES’ NUMBER ONE DETECTIVE! YOU RECEIVED THE HIGHEST APPRAISAL FROM THE HAPES POLICE DEPARTMENT TWO YEARS AGO, YOU MUST’VE ALREADY HAD SUSPECTS SIR!”</p><p>“All I know is that my stomach needs to receive its food right now. Good day gentlemen.”</p><p>The screen then pans to a news anchor in a studio, “President Director of First Order’s Office Branch in Hapes was found dead in the office this morning by a janitor. Police, ambulance and forensic teams were already sent to the scene this morning but details of the tragedy were still being kept from the public to avoid any harsh accusations as the senators’ campaign will start in two months' time..”</p><p>“Sir,” Snoke speaks over the news anchor on the television. His voice was unwaveringly calm. As much as her feet are killing her right now, Bazine stood still on her spot. A bead of perspiration drops down the skin on her back.</p><p>“I’m afraid I will have to cut our meeting short today. I have a few things I have to take care of first.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The story of the sisters has to wait.<br/>The vase in this fic is based on this <a href="https://www.thegypsythread.org/curious-tale-basano-vase/">cursed vase</a>, called Basano Vase.</p><p>Critics are highly appreciated! Xx</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. The Cursed Sisters</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>cw: there are two characters that will get hurt in this chapter.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Chief of Justice left the room with slow steps as if thinking did Snoke really just chunk him out of his office for this? Nevertheless he exited the room obediently.</p><p>Bazine eyeing the new object in the room that’s sitting on the coffee table. The vase. It was already there when Snoke and Bazine entered his office in the morning.</p><p>Snoke gave an order to Bazine to find the vase and if have to, buy it no matter the price. Bazine doesn’t get the sudden hype with antique vase from Snoke but she just want to finish her job quick because she has other tasks to do and buying a vase is not exactly high on her priority list but because Snoke urged her, she called the woman who supposed to be the owner of the said vase several times yesterday. Now the woman is dead. Bazine’s skin crawls with freight.</p><p>Bazine stupidly called using her own number. In her defense, she doesn’t know that the woman will be dead in less than 24hrs after she called.</p><p>Snoke walkover to the coffee table. His eyes not wavering from the vase. Bazine almost never sees Snoke intimidated, but here he is in front of her looking intimidated in front of a dead, unmoving object. Possibly a magical object? How else would it show up here of all the places it could be or how else would it enter Snoke’s office when it’s locked and guarded all the time by his praetorian guards?</p><p>What’s inside the vase?</p><p>“You called the woman yesterday, yes?”</p><p>“Yes sir”</p><p>“Did you call using a burner?”</p><p>Bazine swallowed a hard lump in her throat, bracing herself for the inevitable. “No.. sir, I didn’t expect..”</p><p>Not having any time to dodge, a 3inch book with a hard cover is suddenly thrown in her way, hitting Bazine right on her forehead. Bazine’s legs shakes, she almost falls down on her ass on the carpeted floor, but she righted herself back. She kept her gaze low to the shiny black shoes that Snoke is wearing right now.</p><p>“YOU STUPID BITCH!” Growls Snoke, “NOW I HAVE MORE SHIT TO CLEAN AND THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!”</p><p>Bazine kept quiet while Snoke angrily stood up then paced around the room. “That fucking detective must’ve already suspected something! And this is because you called directly with your number! You’re here for TEN YEARS Bazine and you’re still that thick?!” He yells again. Bazine still keep her gaze low, scared with the possibility of staring right into his eyes. Is he gonna kill her now? But that will be too obvious.. Won’t it?</p><p> “Chart a plane to Dathomir now, cancel the rest of my meeting today, and get the fuck out of my office!”</p><p>Bazine slightly jerked her body when she heard Snoke talks. She nodded her head and chirped a weak “yes sir” then walk out of the room. Her feet still hurt as hell now combined with a sudden headache probably from the book. As she exited the door, not minding the stares from the guards on the door, Bazine feels a drop of liquid falling down her face. She brings her fingers to wipe it down, probably a sweat, but when she holds out her fingers after swiping it, dark red smudges on the skin of her finger.</p><p>“Fuck,” she mutters, as she walk the corridor briskly with one of her hand pushing near her hairline where her wound supposed to be, heading to her office where there are tissues and first aid kit.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Snoke’s hands shakes as he gave the vase to Palpatine.</p><p>As soon as he watched the afternoon news, he knew he didn't want the vase to stay any longer within his vicinity. He wanted to get rid of it quickly, so Snoke jetted to Dathomir. Palpatine’s guards were already waiting outside the door of the stairs under the mountain. Just like his visit yesterday, Snoke’s guards waited outside while he went down the long stairs going down.</p><p>Palpatine chuckles as he takes the vase from Snoke’s hands.<br/>
“Very good Mr. Senator, very good.” Palpatine says. Snoke uncomfortably watches as one of Palpatine’s hands pets the surface of the vase.</p><p>Before Snoke can say anything, Palpatine suddenly recites what sounds to be a poem.<br/>
<em> “Around the fire of the woods<br/>
They gather, old and young,<br/>
A whispering and rowning of women,<br/>
Watching over their Queen,<br/>
Dignified, guarding, keeping,</em></p><p>
  <em>A coming and going,<br/>
All have passed on, yet three stayed,<br/>
Sisters, cursed and tied,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Present but ungraspable, united for time,</em><br/>
As years, decades and centuries passed,<br/>
Bound together by their betrayal to their Queen,
</p><p>
  <em>Knights they were, cursed they are.” </em>
</p><p>As soon as he finishes, Snoke notices that the torches that are surrounding them dimmed as if there’s a wind blowing over them. Snoke looks around the room warily he can feel his heartbeat went up. If anything happens down here he’s sure he will not survive it. When Snoke’s gaze is back to Palpatine, suddenly, there are three tall women standing between him and Palpatine.</p><p>Snoke didn’t hear their footsteps or breath even when it’s crazy quiet down here. Their backs are on Snoke, he’s unable to deduce who they are.</p><p>Snoke notices the air feels different too. It was bleak yet humid with the strong smells of soil and old, preserved herbs. But when the women came, Snoke smells something.. old and ancient, like the smell of old papers from a book that’s put in the deepest part of a library.</p><p>“Illa the eldest, Revna the middle, and Feigr the youngest, the legendary Nightsisters of Dathomir, I welcome you to my humble abode.” Palpatine spoke.</p><p>“We’ve waited for so long Palpatine” a strained voice spoke from the woman to Snoke’s right.</p><p>“I’ve become weaker as you can see, Revna. My last battle with Organas has considerably weakened me.”</p><p>A deep chuckle emitting from the woman to Snoke’s left, “you’re a sneaky bastard Palpatine. You’ve already found your way to survive. Why stop now?” The voice sneers.</p><p>“I am not, Illa. There are hardly any strong spiritualists left for me, I’m hanging on my last energy.”</p><p>“I found someone with the same power as Anakin but it’s a girl.” The woman in the middle speaks.</p><p>“Feigr, you never cease to astound me with your ability. Do you mind showing me the girl?” Palpatine spoke as he held out his wrinkly, white as sheet hand towards the woman in the middle. The woman’s right hand reaches out to hold Palpatine’s.</p><p>What feels like a minute has passed. Palpatine is closing both of his eyes with the look of pure ecstasy on his face as if the woman in the middle just helped scratch the itch he’s unable to do for so long. Then a tug from the corner of his lips forms, Palpatine smiles. His eyes opened, it shone a pale blue with a touch of grey for a second before it suddenly dimmed out.</p><p>“I want her.” Palpatine whispers into the cold air of the room. His voice dripping with malevolence and thirst Snoke never heard from a human before. The sound makes all of Snoke’s hairs on his back stand up. Truth be told, it scares Snoke. Snoke will make sure he will never be the one at the end of Palpatine’s wrath.</p><p>“She’s with someone, Palpatine.” The woman to Snoke’s left, Illa, quipped. “He has a unique ability I’ve never seen before.”</p><p>Palpatine nodding his head, seems to be in a deep thinking before he adds, “he’s the last of Anakin’s bloodline. The reason why I called you out of your vase. I need you to find the boy and finish him. The girl.. give her to me.. alive.”</p><p>“What exactly is in it for us?” Revna, the one to Snoke’s right, critically asks Palpatine.</p><p>“When I get my hands on Khasekhemwy’s scepter, I can free you from this cursed vase. Isn’t that what you want after being trapped in it for 1.000 years? To get my hands on the scepter I need your help, oh Nightsisters of Dathomir, for I’ve become too weak to do it myself.”</p><p>There’s a terse silence between them now. The women seems to be contemplating Palpatine’s offer. Snoke didn’t know anything about the offer. Trapped in a vase for 1.000 years, Khasekhemwy’s scepter, or this girl that Palpatine want alive. But Snoke knows what he meant by Anakin’s last bloodline. Palpatine just asked these women in front of Snoke to kill Ben Solo.</p><p><em> Are they mercenaries then? </em> Snoke thinks fleetingly.</p><p>“We will end Anakin’s last bloodline and find the girl.” The woman in the middle, Feigr, finally breaks the deafening silence.</p><p>“You know our service must come at a price, Palpatine. If you fail, your last breath will be ours.” The woman to the right adds. Her sentences were laced with a threat.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Two days has passed since the murder of Tania Miller. In the past two days Rey couldn’t stop herself from thinking and guessing who are the women that she met before. Rey is sure they’re from that damned vase though. But she doesn’t know what or who they are. Are there more? How many? Is her life or Ben’s in danger now?</p><p>Rey glanced at a clock on her desk. It’s almost lunch time now.</p><p>Mitaka told Rey yesterday that she and Ben will get questioned by the police from Hapes today. Because of Ben’s busy schedule, they will have to do it while having lunch. Thankfully the detective that’s in charge of the case agreed on the time. They will meet at a restaurant not far from First Order.</p><p>What have they found on the scene? Ever since hearing the news from Mitaka, Rey has been monitoring the news like a mother watching over her newborn baby. She doesn’t want to miss a single news or update from the case. But so far, the police in Hapes are keeping the detail of the case off the news. It frustrates her a bit. Rey was staring at the clock on her desk when a knock sounded on her door, and Ben’s head popped out as soon as the door opened.</p><p>“Hey, we’re meeting the Hapes detective at 12.30 we should leave now.”</p><p>“Oh right,” Rey stood up and smoothes her hands down her white shirt and knee length grey skirt. She took her tote bag and matching blazer from the back of her chair and walkover to Ben. Ben holds the door open for her.</p><p>“You look.. nice today.” Ben suddenly says to Rey.</p><p>Rey’s cheeks reddens with the sudden compliment from him. She unconsciously touches her hair that’s put in a low bun, loose enough to let her baby hairs frame her face.</p><p>“T-thanks..”</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>“Hello Mister Solo, thank you for agreeing to meet us.” The detective shook hands with Ben while Rey and the other woman said to be the detective’s right hand woman stood idly. The woman gave Rey a kind smile so Rey decided to give her a smile too.</p><p>“Detective Andor, to be honest Detective, I have some questions about the case too.”</p><p>As the four seated, the waitress came with their drinks, serving them on the table neatly.</p><p>“Alright, do you want to start first with your questions? I’ll see if I can answer them.” Says Detective Andor.</p><p>“I think I’ll start after yours.”</p><p>With that Detective Andor and his right hand woman, whom Rey learned her name to be Jyn Erso, start questioning Ben and Rey respectively about the meeting they had with the Millers on Monday afternoon. Does she seem pressured, stressed, or unsettled, is the meeting planned? If so, how long they’ve been planning for the meeting.</p><p>Since Rey just got to work at First Order recently, her questions are less than Ben’s. Ben already knows the Millers for 6 years. They questioned Ben more about whether he knows about Tania and Edward relationship, whether Edward has a grudge because one of them is cheating thus the murder, etc. however there’s one question that Ben didn’t expect the detective to ask him.</p><p>“How’s your relationship with Coruscant’s Senator, Alexander Snoke, Mister Solo?”</p><p>Ben blinks at the Detective. Ben’s head reeling from the question. Why would they ask him about Snoke?</p><p>“Um.. I know him,” Ben stopped to take a breath. Just the small silence between them feels deafening. Ben continues, “But only as an acquaintance, when I was a teen, that is. He was a friend of my mother, but more than that, I don’t. We’ve never spoken or met each other since. Why?” He tried keeping his composure calm and collected.</p><p>The detective nods his head, “a friend of your mother?”</p><p><em> Jesus. Detectives are fucking shit diggers,</em> Ben thinks.</p><p>“Uh yeah, my mother was Alderaan’s Senator, and Snoke wasn’t a Senator back then. I don’t know.. I was too young to understand back then.” Ben tried to answer it as vaguely as he can. Ben knows the detective and his assistant must’ve already searched for his file, therefore asking about Snoke. Is Snoke involved in this? Ben’s heart clenches thinking about it. He’s so close to the First Order, therefore, him, why?</p><p>As soon as Ben’s answers satisfy them, Ben start to ask them his and Rey’s questions. Yesterday, Ben and Rey were arranging questions they can ask to the detective that’s not in any news to dig out more about the mysterious vase.</p><p>“Was he involved in this?” Ben bravely asks the detective.</p><p>“I’m sorry but that’s classified Mr. Solo. We’re trying to put everything under wraps here because of the upcoming senator campaign in two months.”</p><p>Ben nods his head in understanding. Thinking that this won’t get any further if he keeps on pushing the question about Snoke, Ben changes his strategy.</p><p>“When Rey and I visited her office on Monday, we still saw the vase. It’s on the coffee table where she served us drinks and cakes,” Ben turns to Rey to see her reaction and silently asking for her support. Rey nodded obediently at what he said. Ben continues, “she proudly said that the vase is given to her from her cousin as a wedding gift after her marriage with Edward which dates back to 25 years ago.”</p><p>“Yes Mister Solo. Edward already told us about that.”</p><p>“Is it true then?” Ben stops, looking from Detective Andor to Jyn Erso. “The vase is the only thing that’s missing?”</p><p>The detective nodded grimly, “unfortunately, yes. Her 31k Patek Phillipe watch is still attached to her wrist, and her what.. Harmon? Tote bag?” The Detective turns to Jyn Erso with a questioning look on his face.</p><p>“Hermes.” She said.</p><p>The Detective continues “.. Hermes bag is still lying next to the body when the field team came.” </p><p>“What.. do you think the motive is, Detective?” Asks Rey after pulling up her courage. Detective Andor and Jyn Erso’s eyes now land on her.</p><p>“Murder of jealousy, possibly. We’re still looking into things Ms. Johnson.”</p><p>“What about cctv camera?” Ben quipped.</p><p>“We found nothing. No strangers, no odd occurrences, everything is clean. Very clean in my opinion.. which makes everything harder.” Answered Detective Andor. Rey can tell just how stressed out the man is judging from his gruff look, and the dark circles under his eyes.</p><p>If only she could tell them that there’s a supernatural beings inside the vase, and that they’re probably the ones that murdered Tania Miller. Who or how, Rey is still looking for those answers.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>The meeting with Ben Solo and Rey Johnson ended in three and a half hours. Right now, Cassian and Jyn are heading back to Hapes on a commercial flight. Cassian’s mind working the answers that Ben and Rey gave them hours ago at the restaurant. The man seems truthful. Solo has that intimidating aura that most of successful CEO has, but truthfully, Cassian thinks he’s one of the most down to earth CEO he’s ever met. Someone you can reason with and not the type to throw in their money in your face.</p><p>Before coming to the restaurant, Jyn had shown Cassian files about Ben Solo. It’s not hard to find a file about a famous CEO and Ben Solo’s fame actually makes sense, Cassian thought, after reading his file. Ben Solo is the only son of Leia Organa Solo, senator of Alderaan. Interestingly, Leia Organa Solo was a friend of Alexander Snoke before he was Senator of Coruscant. The number that called Tania Miller’s phone was the number of Alexander Snoke’s assistant.</p><p>What is happening here?</p><p>When Cassian asked Solo about Snoke, he kept his answers sparse. It is true though, Solo was too young back then. But Cassian’s gut is telling him that he should dig out more. Cassian is sure he’s in the right place.</p><p> </p><p>…</p><p> </p><p>The office is almost empty when it’s lunch time. Armitage walk out of this office and just stood there with hands on his hips, stretching out. He’d told everyone that he’ll be having lunch later after he finishes his end of the month report presentation for Ben tomorrow.</p><p>Suddenly, there’s a sound of a door closing.</p><p>Armitage whips his head to where sound probably comes from. He checks his watch, that’s showing him 1.15pm. Armitage idly follows the sound. It leads him to the corridor where Ben’s and Rey’s office is. Armitage cocks his head, everyone left already. Or is Ben or Rey back already?</p><p>Armitage decided to check out whether it’s Ben or Rey. Without knocking, Armitage opens the door to Rey’s office, hoping to find her sitting at her desk, so he could talk to her in private to plan for a lunch or dinner with her again only to find the room empty. Armitage sags in defeat. Rey has been busy lately. She didn’t have lunch with him or Christie. She had her lunches with Ben. That greedy fucker, Armitage thinks.</p><p>Armitage closes the door to Rey’s office with a soft click. Then he walks towards Ben’s door, meaning to see if he’s back already to try and talk to him about Hapes and why it’s holding him and Rey back to Coruscant on Monday. See if it’s true.. Or it’s just Ben’s scheme to keep him away from Rey.</p><p>But what Armitage sees as soon as he opens the door confuses him.</p><p>“Zori?” his tone laced with clear confusion aimed at the woman that’s sitting at Ben’s desk, with Ben’s computer turned on. <em> She’s not supposed to be in her boss’ office, what the fuck? </em> Armitage thinks.</p><p>“What are you doing in here?” suddenly losing all patience, Armitage hisses at the woman. Zori immediately stood up from the chair.</p><p>“I-uh.. Ben asked me to clear something off from his computer, a nasty virus.” the woman said.</p><p>Armitage walk closer to the desk. His expression made Zori look away from him.</p><p>“Actually, I’m already done.” Zori says. She took a scrap of rolled paper with her as she exited the room, but Armitage notices that there’s a flash disk inside the rolled paper, that was previously attached to the computer. He meant to call for Zori and confront her about it but what came from his mouth instead is.. “Hey, have you had lunch yet? I haven’t and I’m famished. Do you reckon there’s a sandwich in the nearest mini market?”</p><p>Zori turns at him, “yeah they have good sandwiches, you should check it out! Wanna go there with me now? I was fixing the boss’ computer, I haven’t had lunch yet either.”</p><p>And that is how Armitage finds himself eating sandwiches from a mini market near First Order office. Him and Zori ate the sandwiches and bought juice drinks before walking back to the office talking about their end of the month reports.</p><p>As the day draws on, Armitage didn’t meet with Ben and Rey even when the clock struck 8pm in the evening. They've been gone since lunch. Armitage starts to suspect that Ben has something going on with Rey but he just won’t admit it while Rey is too innocent to actually know what's going on. Armitage grumbly pack up his things to go home.</p><p>Armitage walk back to his car that’s parked in the basement of the building grimly. He really wanted to talk to Rey today, hoping for a Saturday date with her but she’s nowhere to be found after lunch, and before that, Armitage has tons of work to finish.</p><p>When Armitage got his car key out of his pocket, an unbearable pain in his stomach made him double over in pain. The pain fastly spreading to his chest and then lungs. His lungs hurt so much every time he takes a breath, he feels like as if knives are being stabbed right into it. His breathing short and laboured, Armitage kneels on the basement floor holding his stomach and chest. He tried calling for help but his voice died in his throat. His whole body shaking, he’s in too much pain to be able to focus his voice to form a sentence or word.</p><p>Beads of perspiration forms on his forehead. <em> I’m gonna die now? why here of all the places I can be? </em> Armitage thinks furiously.</p><p><em> The sandwich.. flash disk.. Zori.. </em> Armitage's brain jumps back to a few hours ego when he entered Ben's office finding Zori in it before his consciousness disappears and his sight blackens.</p><p> </p><p>…</p><p> </p><p>Agent 7 arrived in her apartment. She pulled out the flash disk that’s filled with the data from Ben Solo’s computer at the office. Armitage had come inside Ben’s office right when the transferred data turned 100% completed. <em> Lucky me,</em> think Agent 7.</p><p><em> Poor Armitage though,</em> Agent 7 think again. She had to put him down for sometime until this clears out. The poison she had put inside Armitage’s sandwich is untraceable. It’s a very developed poison made by Snoke’s research team back in Jakku. Agent 7 loved it.</p><p>Agent 7 put her laptop up and connected the flash disk to her laptop to start snooping around Ben Solo’s computer data. Her eyes scan the documents and files fast, ignoring First Order’s work files and instead looking for the extra and un-named file Solo has.</p><p>Agent 7 clicked the file.</p><p>There’s a copy of a scheduled private jet flight to Alderaan tomorrow Friday with two names on it: Solo, Benjamin, O. and Johnson, Rey. Why would Rey come with him to Alderaan?</p><p>There’s also a document filled with a questions list. Agent 7 read through it all. Why would Solo have this inside his computer? Does he knows anything about the murder in Hapes? Agent 7 hasn’t received any new order or news from Snoke regarding the murder in Hapes whether the man involved or not.</p><p>Agent 7 mentally curses Ben Solo for being very tight lipped about his matters. She’s already at the office for more than 5 years, will he trust her already? Agent 7 rests her back to the cushioned sofa. Okay.. if he doesn’t trust her yet, Solo’s most trusted confidante is Mitaka. Then she can start digging from him.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>
  <a href="https://collections.mfa.org/objects/131687"> Khasekhemwy's Scepter </a>
</p><p>critics are highly appreciated!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Sulla’s Crown</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ben holds the door open for Rey. They stepped out of the restaurant where they had lunch with Detective Cassian Andor and his assistant, Jyn Erso when it’s almost 4pm. The busy street of Coruscant suddenly left deserted. The street in front of the restaurant is empty. No people walking around, no cars going by. The only car that left there is is the car that’s bringing Detective Andor and his assistant to the airport.</p><p>“Do you want to walk back or I can just call Mitaka to pick us up?” Ben asks Rey when they’re outside the restaurant.</p><p>“The office is not that far.. It’s just three blocks away, let's walk?” She turns and looks up to Ben. An act Ben lately finds endearing, how she has to crane her neck to look at him.</p><p>Ben and Rey walk along the street to reach First Order’s office building side to side. When they just passed the first block, Ben notices that the sky blackens considerably. Strong gusts of winds almost toppling Rey over to the ground, Ben immediately holds Rey close to him. His arms snaked around her torso.</p><p>“Are you okay?!” Ben yells over the strong sound of the wind.</p><p>Rey nodded her head and looked up to the sky curiously, finding flashes of lightning dancing behind the now black sky. The surrounding area quickly darken. Newspaper, pieces of plastics, tissues, a hot dog wrapper, and broken leaves are flying everywhere in the air, carried by the strong winds.</p><p>“Is there a storm coming?” Rey weakly asks no one in particular. She’s not sure Ben will hear it over the loud sound of the thunder above them.</p><p>“What?!” Ben yells again. Ben quickly pulled on Rey’s arm to bring them under a bus stop in case a heavy rain suddenly fell down their heads.</p><p>“Shit. I think a heavy rain will soon follow.” Ben grumbles under his breath. He decides to call on Mitaka to pick them up but when the tone rings, it says the server is busy. He put away his phone from his ear, looking up at the signal bar finding it says ‘No Signal’.</p><p>“Fuck.” Ben mutters, “A storm is definitely coming.” he says as he turns to Rey.</p><p>When he did, he caught Rey staring straight to the other side of the four lane street. Her eyes glazed and not blinking, even in the middle of the strong winds around them that’s carrying dust and other little things. Ben had to blink a few times when something caught his eyes.</p><p>“Rey?!” he yelled over the loud thunder of lightning above them. After he brushed something off of his eyes, he focused his sight to what Rey is seeing on the other side of the street.</p><p>At first he saw nothing, just an empty sidewalk with an empty park behind it. But then his eyes start focusing on a figure that at first he thought it was a grey smoke from a car, but he realises that there’s no car around them at the moment. The figure clears out. There are more than one person, Ben notices, there are three.</p><p>Ben’s eyes squint to look at them. They’re all women. They’re all tall and wearing a weird clothing that Ben only saw in movies like Lord of The Rings, or even that Netflix series, The Witch. From the corner of his eye, Ben can see Rey still staring at the women in front of them. Ben turns to urge Rey to stop staring at the women and to continue their walk back to the office.</p><p>“Rey, stop staring..Let's go back to the office, I think if we run we can reach there before the downpour,” whispers Ben, close to Rey’s ears. Ben tugs on her arms, Rey begrudgingly walk along next to Ben. Ben catches Rey when she turns for the last time to look at the women on the other side of the road, He snaked his arms around Rey’s torso to help her when a strong wind blew over them.</p><p>A few steps after they walk away from the bus stop, Ben can hear noises of other people walking behind them. Ben warily looks over his shoulder, finding the women are walking a few meters behind them. Ben stopped his footpace, pulling Rey to a stop beside him. The three women stopped theirs too. A bit closer than before, Ben can see their faces as clear as a day now. Their faces so thin, their cheekbones and nose and the eyebrows’ bones jutting out of their faces.</p><p>Something about their stares and their.. Odd clothing is making Ben nervous.<br/>
“Can we help you?” Ben asks the three women. The woman in the middle cocks her head to the side and sneers at him.</p><p>Ben suddenly feels Rey’s hand twisting on his shirt, “w-we hh-have t-to go,” Rey whispers to his neck. Ben looks down to Rey. Her eyes are bulging out and he notices now that her whole body is shaking. Ben tightens his grip on Rey’s torso.</p><p>“It’s alright, I got you,” he whispers.</p><p>Rey shakes her head, “No, nononono, we have to get away from them, now…” Rey whimpers. Ben stares at Rey confusedly when this time, she tugs on him to walk with her. When Ben start walking next to Rey, Rey cranked their pace faster.</p><p>“Rey? What's going on?!” Ben calls over Rey when Rey is a few steps ahead of him. Her hand is still holding on Ben’s hand, tugging it with her, urging him to walk faster with her.</p><p>Ben twines their fingers. He walks faster next to Rey, still looking for answers from her face that’s scrunched up in worry now.</p><p>“Something’s wrong?!” He tries again, but Rey stays quiet.</p><p>“It’s them..” Rey whispers.</p><p>“Them who?!”</p><p>“The women from the vase..” </p><p>Rey feels like crying, right here, right now.</p><p>The moment her sight landed on the three women across from where Ben and her standing, Rey knows they’re bad news. Rey can feel her gut wrenching, telling her to run as fast as she can.</p><p>Rey thought the moment Ben touches her, they’ll be gone. But they’re still here. The three women doesn’t disappear the moment Ben touches her.</p><p>
  <em> They’re no ordinary ghosts.. who are they? </em>
</p><p>Rey’s thoughts are running a mile an hour, trying to think of a way out of the situation she’s in now, but she can think of nothing. She has no weapon, knows no mantra whatsoever, to push them away.</p><p>
  <em> who are they? What can I do to survive this? </em>
</p><p>“REY! GET AWAY!”</p><p>Everything is happening so fast.</p><p>Rey turns to ask Ben what’s going on when Ben’s arm that’s wrapped on her shoulder tugs on her hard and pulled her to his body. When Rey turns to look at what’s behind her, a sword with the length of her legs swung towards where she was standing a mere second ago. The sword was aimed at her neck, missing it by a mere inch. Rey can hear the sharpness of the sword by the hiss it made when it sliced the air near her ear.</p><p>“REY RUN!!”</p><p>Even when Rey can’t feel her legs at the moment because of the panic and the near death experience she just had, Rey is forcing both of her legs to run fast.</p><p>“Palps want the girl alive you dumb wench!” One of the women hissed.</p><p>“Oh, my bad. I can have the big boy then. My Dáinsleif is famished. It’s been years since I fed him blood.”</p><p>The weather got worse. The sky turns so black as if it’s already midnight. The wind blew harsher around Ben and Rey. Papers, plastics, and other light weighted thrash are flying in the air around them. Ben and Rey really tried to run, but the heavy wind that’s blowing them is preventing them from making any fast movement.</p><p>A series of lightning and thunder still emerging in the dark sky. Ben wanted to look for help but no car was seen driving by, no other people was seen walking. Therefore, Ben and Rey keep running for what already feels like a kilometer already. They’re holding hands and their other hand is used to shield their eyes to be able to look forward. </p><p>Suddenly, a hotdog cart is flying in the air and heading their way. Ben without thinking too long, grabbed Rey to hide in an alley to avoid the flying hotdog cart. Ben presses his body to Rey on a red bricked building.</p><p>“what the hell is going on!” yells Ben to no one in particular.</p><p>“There’s no one around!” He yells again. He can feel Rey’s body shaking greatly under his.</p><p>The three women showed up at the head of the poorly lit alley. Ben takes Rey’s hand again and walked her further away from the three women. He stood in front of Rey, shielding her from the three women. Rey’s forehead peeking through Ben’s shoulder.</p><p>“What do you want?” Ben asks the three women. “Here, I have a.. 30k Rolex, just take it and leave us alone.” He continues.</p><p>“We want the girl.” The woman in the middle speaks. Ben can’t truly see them in the poorly lit alley plus the darkened sky, but he can see that all of the women’s lips are stained black. The one that just opened its mouth to speak, showed Ben a glimpse of what’s inside her mouth. She has a black tongue and her teeth sharp like a shark’s teeth, crooked, and yellowing.</p><p>Ben tighten his hold on Rey’s hand.</p><p>“She’s not going anywhere.” says Ben.</p><p>“She’ll be going with us pretty boy, as soon as I sliced your throat open with my Dáinsleif.” The woman with a long sword that swung her sword aimed at Rey’s neck earlier, spoke. Ben’s skin crawls. There is something about the three women in front of him that scares him even more than a normal burglar on the street of Coruscant.</p><p>“Make it fast Illa.”</p><p>The woman with the long sword start walking closer to where Ben and Rey is standing. The sword she’s holding in her hand is so long, she dragged it across the ground while walking. The sound of the sharpness of the knife gliding through the pavement is echoing in the alley. The knife leaving a long ragged line on the pavement.</p><p>Ben’s eyes focusing on the long sword. And suddenly, his thoughts drifting to his mother. The warmness of her hugs and kisses, the soft touches of her fingers when she holds his face in both of her palms, and her melodic voice when she read him a bedtime story.</p><p><em> is this.. the end? </em> Ben thinks.</p><p>The woman with the sword pulled up her sword.</p><p>Ben’s heartbeat quickens yet everything feels like it’s slowing down. When the woman is five feet away from Ben, Ben can finally see the woman’s face way more up close. The face reminds him of a old vampire lady in movies that he watches as a kid.</p><p>The woman swung back her sword.</p><p>Ben can feel Rey tightening her hold on Ben’s hand and arm. Ben thinks that if this is how he die, by protecting Rey, he’ll gladly go.</p><p>Ben closes his eyes, waiting for the sword to strike.</p><p>Rey’s eyes wide open when it happens.</p><p>A loud whistle rings in the alley.</p><p>The long sword frozen in the air, a good one feet away from Ben’s neck. The woman with the long sword turns her neck to look and so does the other women.</p><p>Rey can see a shadow standing at the head of the alley, behind the three women. A golden glint at his head blinking at them. Rey is sure it was him who was whistling.</p><p>Another whistle rings.</p><p>This time a dozen of men wearing what seems to be a bronze armor lining up in front of the mysterious man. Each of them holding a tall spear in their hand and a shield in the other. The head of the spear is seems to be a sharpened steel, it’s glinting in the darkness of the alley.</p><p>What scares Rey is that all of the men are skeletons. Underneath all the bronze armor is bones. All of them are a skeleton. Rey can see right through them.</p><p>“What is going on?” Ben whispers.</p><p>Ben must be not seeing the dozen of skeletons men in front of him because they’re purely ghosts.</p><p>“T-there’s something in front of us..”</p><p>The women quickly turns their back. Rey can see each of them are pulling out something from their scabbards. The woman with her long sword is now walking back towards the other two women.</p><p>“Sulla’s crown!” One of them hisses.</p><p>“I thought they’re gone for good!” The other angrily snapped.</p><p>“Oh, you know what this is.. then you’ll know what will happen when I give them my command to kill you.” The mysterious man that’s standing behind the dozen army of armored men, talks.</p><p>“Your phantom roman soldiers is no match for my sisters’ swords, old man.”</p><p>“Are you sure about that?” The man gouged. “They’re Sulla’s loyal phantom soldiers. Unlike you, they’re untouchable. Your Hofud &amp; Skofnung, Lævateinn, or Dáinsleif won’t effect them. More importantly, they will stop at nothing to follow my command. You’re too weak now to face them head on, Nightsisters. We will have this battle for days without them stopping but you’ll grow weaker.”</p><p>The sound of the harsh wind and thunders filled the silence between them.</p><p>“Piece of shit!” The woman with the long sword suddenly swung the sword towards the armored men. There is a loud sound when the sword met one of the men’s shield. The woman holding the long sword hisses.</p><p>“Again, your Dáinsleif will not effect them.”</p><p>“Illa, lets get back.” One of the women with a long and thin sword shouted. “He’s right. Our swords aren’t for phantom soldiers.”</p><p>“I’ve pulled out Dáinsleif.. It’s a disgrace to put it back in its scabbard without a drop of blood on its surface..”</p><p>Rey’s eyes are focused on the three women in front of her and Ben. But when she blink her eyes once, the woman with a long sword is now standing in front of her and Ben, her long sword swinging backwards aiming at Ben.</p><p>“BEN!!” Rey screamed and tugged Ben backwards.</p><p>A high pitched whistle rang in the air. In the blink of an eye, three of the armored men flying in the air so fast, their body going through the other two women’s body, going to the direction of Rey and Ben.</p><p>Ben’s body being yanked backwards, Rey managed to safe Ben’s life by a hair’s breadths. The long sword cuts a good centimeter of Ben’s hair before the three armored men standing in front of Ben and Rey with their spear aimed at the wielder of the long sword and their shield are held in front of them.</p><p>“Illa!” The other woman shouted.</p><p>Rey guessing the wielder of the long sword name is Illa, her face showing the look of pure bitterness and defeat.</p><p>“We’ll see you two again, Ben and Rey.” Said Illa before she dissipates into thin air followed by the other two women. </p><p>As soon as the three women gone, Rey’s legs gave up. She fell on her bottom on the rough pavement of the alleyway. Ben’s hands quickly shot down to hold her arms, “Rey, are you okay?” Not having any energy to talk, Rey only managed to nod her head at Ben. Her whole body still shaking gently and her heartbeat finally slowing down. Rey can feel cold sweat dripping down the skin on her back.</p><p>A whistle rang in the air again. All of the armored men disappears, leaving Rey and Ben with the mysterious man.</p><p>“Are you two alright?” The old man walk closer to Ben’s crouching form above Rey. Ben turns to take a good look at the man. As soon as his sight lands on the mysterious man, Ben’s breath is knocked out of him.</p><p>When the man walk closer to them, Rey can finally see his face. He has a long grey hair that came down his shoulder and a matching long grey beard that’s tied with a rubber at the end of it. He’s wearing a dark grey poncho, with a black long sleeved sweater peaking out of his neck and hands.  His hands, Rey notices, are holding what looks to be a golden crown in a shape of leaves and grass.</p><p>“Un-uncle Luke..” Ben chokes out. His whole body freezes.</p><p>“Hello Ben.”</p><p>A lighting flashed, followed by the sound of a thunder in the air. The flash of the lightning made Ben able to see the pale blue eyes of his long lost uncle. A heavy rain suddenly pouring down on them.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Sorry this one is a short chapter! The Nightsisters consisting of:<br/>Illa, the wielder of <a>Dáinsleif</a><br/>Revna, the wielder of <a>Hofud</a> and <a>Skofnung</a><br/>Feigr, the wielder of <a>Laevateinn</a></p><p>Another cursed object/artifact in this chapter is <a>Sulla’s Grass Crown</a> it supposed to be green.. like a grass.. but I thought that it’d be cooler if its gold.. so yea, I changed it up a bit in this fic.</p><p>Your critics are highly appreciated! stay healthy and safe xx</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>